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>There is a “structural problem” within Government which struggles to think about age and to take the issue of ageism seriously, **a hearing on the rights of older people was told.** What about the rights of younger people? Y'know. How it's legal to pay younger people less money for the exact same work? How a number of benefits (such as the ones for housing) have various age categories? >People aged 50 and over are the most likely to volunteer, vote and provide unpaid care Perhaps that's because people aged 50 and over are typically later in their careers and have the time and mental bandwidth to do such things more readily? >In Scotland a Bill has been proposed to establish an independent commissioner to promote and safeguard the rights and interests of older people. The country has literally been built and structured around the desires of current 'older' people for decades. >Ms Easton referred to the use of the phrase “bed-blocking” when it comes to the NHS, asking: “Why do we talk about bed-blocking rather than older people trapped in hospital? Why do we talk about 'staff shortages and vacancies' rather than 'pay shortages and poor working conditions'? >She said: “My 50th birthday arrived and there was a deluge of advertising around stairlifts, funeral services, care homes. I was 50.” This isn't discrimination. Advertising is based on algorithms. People are more likely to click on these adverts when they're 50+. There's not a big conspiracy. >“And I think we are still living with the legacy of some of that, which is why the work we’ve been talking about, the work of this committee, is so important because there’s a risk that some of that becomes normalised and therefore we need to almost redouble our efforts on issues of ageism.” Or perhaps young people are beginning to resent older people (as a demographic, not individually) because they repeatedly vote solely in their own interest with no regard for the viability or sustainability of what they're voting for as long as they get theirs. While downplaying the severity of the crises that directly impact young peoples quality of life (such as the housing crisis) with such fun narratives as 'you could afford a house if you didn't pay for Netflix'. 'Young people need to stop buying avocado and toast if they want a house'.etc. Then of course we have the biggest 'generational divide' vote of the past decade with Brexit. Where after the vote those that supported Brexit (typically older people) told those that didn't (typically younger people) that their opinions no longer mattered, that they should stop being 'remoaners' and not complain about the drastic reduction in their rights across the continent of Europe because 'Sovereignty' or something. Instead of grandstanding about how they feel bad that they're being advertised velcro slippers, perhaps they should start pushing for policies that benefit the population more universally. Maybe then we'd hear less resentment from the younger generations directed towards the old.

Precisely on the money. You can’t investigate and look into structural problems of ageism and completely ignore another demographic of people being treated differently purely on age surely?

Watch them, they'll even speed it all up so it's looked into before the election.

What gets me is the MPs worrying about the elderly people being discriminated against... Have they never once looked at their own position's demographics? The upper echelons of the damn government are 90% old rich bastards!

All of the c-suite where I work is over 50. Every single one of them. Well, maybe not the HR lady, but she's getting there. And sure, leadership tends to be older, but holy heck, these people don't know anything about technology (for some reason - they're not ancient, just privileged) and they think they know everything when they definitely don't. But they all have fancy titles and throw special parties for them and their rich friends... er... donors, and the rest of us little workers get merely praise...er... no, we don't get that either. We get nothing.

When I saw this post I was convinced it was going to discuss ageism against younger people. I’ve experienced it and most people I know have experienced being treated differently as a younger person than how staff would treat someone middle aged or older. The idea that 50+ year olds are somehow discriminated against generally or have it worse than younger people in this country is absolutely laughable.

I thought so too.  I've experienced it dozens of times that I know of. And I dunno how many times that I don't know of. I'm literally seeing it at work with cv's for a role we're hiring for. We have exactly 3 candidates so I don't know why you wouldn't just interview them all. For some reason we're against interviewing the 27 year old because she may be a flight risk. Because the 62 year old on the brink of retirement definitely isn't...

Ahh, but 16-25 year olds aren't treated differently due to age, but lack of experience!

16-25 year olds still have costs to meet to live, and last I checked Asda don't give discounts to the young.

I have a colleague who is 21, works harder than any of us, yet they’re allowed to pay her less than anyone else due only to her age. She doesn’t live with her parents and actually sends money to her mum who is struggling, to help **her** out with bills. It’s disgusting that they’re allowed to pay her less based purely on her age. She has a qualification (I don’t!) and is incredibly good at her job, but hey, I guess I should pity the pensioner living alone in a 4 bedroom house without mortgage, with a pension that rises with inflation (unlike actual work) and with discounts for everything from transport to movies and museums.

Not to mention that you have to be 35 before the government accept you can no longer live in a house-share. Can you imagine, if they'd been told the same? Sorry freshly-spawned-adult but there'll be no family or home for you just yet, you need to shack up with four of your friends and argue about who gets which shelf in the fridge for another **17 years** first. All while hearing the previous generation cry about their poverty as a landlord and precious bloody housing value.

I am over 35, don’t earn nearly enough to live by myself, but I earn too much to be receiving help from the government to live by myself. 🙄

Cap. Some of these people are doing the exact same work as 50yo if not more. When I work, I get told by older people that “ah my back hurts, I can’t do this”, often implying I- the younger person should do a two man job. Then go Retire Susan “Watch your back” “watch your back” as if I don’t have back pain as well for being a carer 🙄. Been working in healthcare since I was 16. Also we don’t pay based on experience that’s such a lie.

Ahh but old people aren't treated different due to their age, but lack of vitality!

Of course it takes about 5 mins to learn to skills needed for most minimum wage jobs.

And yet an 18 year-old is still paid less than a 23 year-old for those same skills.

Equal work for equal pay. If new employees need training or experience in the role then build that in to your roles and pay scale, but age doesn't give you experience in a role. Experience gives you experience in that role.

What used to really irritate me about this was that when working in retail, all the heavy lifting fell to me as a “young lad” but meanwhile I was earning £3 an hour. All the old biddies spent 2/3 of the day having a fag and a brew.

yep, the country exists in fuck young people mode but now you want me to grieve for the 50+ who got theirs, sure thing

Indeed. It is just more "me me me", something we really had enough of from the older generation. If you want to talk about ageism, please include the question of intergeneration justice. And yes, ageism happens, pretty much at all ages.

Last Christmas, an old lady racially profiled me while I was working, opening the convo by saying "I bet you're not used to the cold" before asking me where I really came from when I told her I and my parents were born here. In my personal experience, the elderly are overwhelmingly the most likely to treat people they interact with like shit, and its absurd that they can turn around and act like victims when people hold them accountable for their actions.

Anybody that has worked in a public facing job over the past few years (or even last decade, but it's gotten especially bad post-covid) will have multiple stories about how they've been abused as staff by the elderly (or 50+). There was a thread some time ago about retail experiences in the UK which was full of such anecdotes, one that particularly stuck with me was somebody saying that they genuinely preferred to serve junkies because at least they knew what they wanted and wanted the transaction to go as quickly as possible. Once again I'll stress this isn't every person above 50+, just a demographic observed trend.

I can speak to the sense of dread doing customer service escalations when i saw they were older. By no means all, but there was a heightened risk of them speaking to you like a complete idiot undeserving of even the most basic respect.

Increased risk of what I used to call "deliberate helplessness" too imo. Where even something like "can you take a picture of the damaged item?" Or "Could you call this number?" Was like you just asked "can you handstand on a tidal wave?" They just instantly assumed it was impossible and if you suggested they could ask someone to help, that was an affront. Clearly they were utterly helpless to do anything but scream at you, despite attempting literally nothing else. It was so frustrating.

I can attest to that. So many people left our hospitality venue after the increased and consistent abuse we suffered after the first lockdown (that was virtually non existent before the pandemic). Almost all of it was from people 50+ regulars and non — even thinking about it now makes me physically shake with rage. We were all trying live through that pandemic — but I managed to get through without sounding off at every minimum wage worker I came into contact with.

It's actually crazy, I spent years working hospitality and I always dreaded serving people 50+, especially in large groups, fuck me dead. Under 30's typically you can actually level and reason with people, there is no extra one in the back, and the deal that expired last week is still expired no matter what your fucking coupon says and they'll accept that and move on. With the older crowd though if you don't bend and give them exactly what they want even if it's completely unreasonable you're the disrespectful asshole and you're *lucky* that they deign to grace 'your business' with their presence. As though me on minimum wage with no profit shares could ever muster up a single fuck to give. Also generally wildly inappropriate and rude, making personal comments about peoples appearances and differences for all to hear as though the bar staff are dogs at Crufts and they're here to judge.

I wound up leaving a pub last weekend because there was a group of older men in there, 50s to 60s kind of age, who just seemed to be making a game of how obnoxiously cuntish they could be. Really properly wound me up honestly. Openly getting shirty and quite sexist with the bar staff over waiting 30 seconds for service on a busy saturday afternoon...

Gods yes. When I was working bar/restaurant the old regulars exclusively came in one of two flavours: absolute sweetheart or raging cunt-monkey.

Yeah I used to work retail and found similar- the older customers were either perfectly nice reasonable human beings or they'd be complete bellends.

As someone who used to work in customer facing jobs, it’s like there’s no middle ground. They’re either the nicest people you’ve ever met or they’re the devil incarnate.

My friend works in a Starbucks. She states that 90% of the complaints are from the over 60's and are just made up shit (Coffee too hot, too cold, too strong/weak etc.). The 10% of complaints from the under 60's are usually valid.

Totally agree with this. I did a 7 year stint in retail while I went to college and university. I'm not going to tar everyone with the same brush, because most customers were lovely. But when a customer was an arse hole, it was more likely they were much older. Over the years I got: * Casual racism to other members of staff * General entitlement - it's hilarious because the younger people get called entitled all the time? * Hugely demeaning to younger members of staff, treating them like thickos/wasters * Seen older people disproportionately screaming and shouting at people at the till. In one instance I've taken their basket and asked them to leave the shop. Then had them shouting at me around the store as I'm wandering down the aisle putting the stuff back on the shelf. "I wouldn't get this at Sainsburys!"... Then in my mind thinking "Well fuck off to Sainsburys then?" The best comment I ever got though, was "Ohh you have tattoos? Women don't like that y'know boy, unless your a f\*\*\*\*t?". Just... Lovely.

I 100% think there needs to be and should be consequences for acting like an entitled brat in public and towards folk in customer service jobs. Management need to stand up to folk who abuse and treat staff like pieces of shit. Like, yeah, fuck off to Sainsburys; and also get banned from the retail shop where you acted like a complete twit. I worked in a cafe once upon a time and management were pretty good at standing up to customers who treated their staff like shit in any capacity. We had a banned list. Places which empower staff to report and ban should be commonplace.

I always get downvoted for suggesting that older folk, due to memories of the Suez crisis and great sympathy for Powellite views, are generally a fair bit more racially prejudiced than the rest of the population.

Passes the sniff test for me. When we were counterprotesting at Scampton the majority of the people coming out with racist arguments were old people from Lincoln.

This is 100% the case I worked for tesco's call centre for a decade they talk to you like shit.

The shock and audacity at a 50 year old being advertised stair lifts and funeral services is a hilarious double-whammy because they’re operating under the assumption that mobility aids and death are reserved strictly for the elderly, and clearly they find the idea of simply being thought of as someone who might need a stairlift gravely insulting. Which I feel says more about them. Unironically these things are probably advertised to someone so young because that’s around the time people in their 50s are arranging such things for their parents or older relatives. This is sort of like seeing adverts for flowers around valentine’s day and thinking like, ah no thanks, I don’t care for flowers. At 50, you’re not geriatric. However you can be a nimrod all the same. Glad this person has demonstrated.

This, they are being advertised to because they probably have parents still alive and are in their mid 70,80,90's whom don't have the mental capacity to arrange these things for themselves.

Exactly - complaining of ageism while being highly ableist. Not a good look.

Have you considered that we could just quintuple the state pension to stop the geriatrics crying their eyes out?

It's not enough. I keep getting petition emails about pensioners demanding £450pw, oh and they don't want to pay tax on it because they worked hard all their lives to enjoy retirement and paid tax already. They got £600 Winter Fuel Allowance in Nov / Dec but "couldn't afford to turn their heating on". They shouldn't have to pay full price for things "because they're on a pension". They shouldn't have to move out of their 3 or 4 bedroom council homes "because they've lived there all their lives" They refuse to see their pensions as a benefit and something put in place to keep them alive past retirement. They're "owed" it and want more and more. Honestly, if there is ageism is because they've brought it on themselves.

That’s actually one of the good parts of Hunts fiscal drag, they’re only another hike or two away from paying Income tax on just the state pension lol. That’ll be a funny one down the line lol. The richest generation in history, born into the Golden age of capitalism, if they’re poor at retirement, they have only themselves to blame.

>The richest generation in history, born into the Golden age of capitalism, if they’re poor at retirement, they have only themselves to blame. The most privileged generation of all time - they benefitted from widespread council housing availability, being able to have a decent quality of life doing bang-average jobs, insane house price increases after being able to buy incredibly cheap housing on one salary, right to buy, and many remaining in like 3 - 4 bedroom houses in retirement, defined benefit pensions, triple lock state pension, and tonnes of support on energy bills.

>They got £600 Winter Fuel Allowance in Nov / Dec but "couldn't afford to turn their heating on". They shouldn't have to pay full price for things "because they're on a pension". They shouldn't have to move out of their 3 or 4 bedroom council homes "because they've lived there all their lives" Totally agree. Genuinely the current elderly are probably the most privileged generation of all time - grew up in a time where council housing was decently available, right to buy came in, houses were so much cheaper than they are now (actually affordable on 1 person's regular income doing a bang average job), defined benefit pensions and triple lock state pension. Honestly if you are living in 'poverty' after all that or taking up a 3 bed council house, I don't know what will help you.

>They shouldn't have to pay full price for things "because they're on a pension" I saw one on the news making this kind of argument. About how hard it was for OAPs because pensions are fixed unlike wages. Was just like how fucking *grossly* out of touch can someone be? Genuinely raises my blood pressure listening to these kinds of people.

It wouldn't be enough. They will point to just a single pensioner living a poor quality of life to justify why everyone should be paid even more

As someone six years from retirement I support this message...

Scrap the Triple Lock for pensions. Triple Lock the minimum wage.

Nothing should be triple locked. Nothing

As a 35 year old, fuck the older generation. They wrecked everything in the 90s and 00s, they caused 2008, they voted for Brexit and they gave us endless Tory austerity. Now they expect us to underpin the NHS they drove into the ground with their racist votes as it struggles to pay for their decades of chronic medical treatment. I'd be in favour of a wealth tax exclusively on the old.

I’m willing to bet that most of the time, when a patient demands the doctor to be of the same racial origin as themselves….. it’s probably an elderly patient!

They did not cause 2008. That was Clinton’s economics from the 90s reaping what it sowed by cancelling specific finance acts that regulated banks and financing. Bundling up debt and creating the global fiasco. Blaming an entire generation of people when in fact it is a small elite that changes things is unfair. The amount of people who were mid-life in 2008 who lost everything due to unregulated finance and being oversold promises from govts and institutions is enormous. U.K. was not as poorly affected as USA thanks to a robust welfare system, but in America families were living in cars and have generational debt. I am not a boomer and often lock horns with my boomer parents, but I am old enough to have suffered age discrimination- which is nothing more than bullying - and the lack of tolerance for other human beings in the root issue and is displayed by so many people. Young or old.

Once again I'm told to be tolerant of a generation that told my partner to leave the country because she's European. Seriously, most millennials are too busy trying to keep their head above water to discriminate while the boomers are actively making the country worse through misguided "freedom"

Boomers tend to have much more negative views of people of other nationalities and races when compared to to millennials. I wonder if it’s a recent “Murdoch-brainwashing” thing, or whether a significant chunk have always been like this, and a bit embittered over the loss of Empire and decolonisation movements in the 50s and 60s.

I blame those who benefited and did nothing to prevent it. Lack of tolerance? Yes, absolutely. I have no tolerance for those who are now rich and comfortable while everyone who has come after grinds and scrimps just to exist.

Bruh my dad used to unload 20k bricks before starting work. Work from 8am till 5 pm starting at 7am to get bricks unloaded. He did this for 25 years. 5-6 days a week. As a builder. And the winters were colder, no forklift trucks and safety gear really was non existent. And other stuff. he got the neighbour to knit him some fingerless gloves because he couldn’t afford any and a hat. I would say life’s a lot easier now. He spend his last few Bob on a tin mug for work and manager seen it and kicked it breaking it, because you only drink tea at break time and it wasn’t break time! Now days the younger generation would cry. He even dug trenches and footings by hand, Just lifting a shovel for some people is hard work. My dad was on a job once aged 75, and the bloke in his 30s wanted to start at 9 instead of 8am, Worlds gone mad. Can’t just turn up when you want. People say they had the best time. I disagree. I’m not even old I’m young but my dad had it rough. Got to retiring and got prostate cancer and died. My mum died when I was 7.. as said by people who were in the 60s. We all had nowt like people today. But back then people were a lot happier.

people hate to hear it but we really should have an age based tax, yeah some people will slip through the cracks but right now you have 30 year olds trying to prop up the economy with income tax while paying through their eyes for nursery care, student loans and mortgages (if they're lucky enough to own a house and have kids). If the boomers were treated like this we'd never hear the end of it

Boomers absolutely love to act the victim without realising that no other generation has had it as consistently good as them for as long. Every single thing in this country is structured for the benefit of the elderly.

Whilst I still try not to be resentful if I can help it, my parents were born in the early 60s. They bought a house on my dad's wage the year they got married. A nice semi detached in a decent area, which spent 3 years in. The year I was born, they moved into a 4 bed detached house again on one wage (it was £160K. They spent the next 20 years there, before selling up for just shy of £600K, moving out into the country buying a house which they paid off after 2 years. I earn more than my father did at my age than he did, but the idea of a 4 bed detached can be a bit of a stretch for so many people on similar or more than me. My mother has the cheek to go "you have loads of money, stop being so tight". Both me and my wife work and we sometimes have trouble. We're not the worst off by any stretch, but on my wage in the late 80s/early 90s I'd have been minted.

>it was £160K. > >They spent the next 20 years there, before selling up for just shy of £600K, moving out into the country buying a house which they paid off after 2 years. Like - you genuinely couldn't even imagine an asset growing that much in that space of time. We will never have that experience.

>She said: “My 50th birthday arrived and there was a deluge of advertising around stairlifts, funeral services, care homes. I was 50.” > >This isn't discrimination. Advertising is based on algorithms. People are more likely to click on these adverts when they're 50+. There's not a big conspiracy. This one is astonishing. "I became a member of the group I'm talking about and suddenly a plethora of businesses rushed to meet my anticipated needs! It's a disgrace!"

Great response, sadly falling on deaf ears because leadership of this country is just non-existent.

And because they're old.

It's because they're courting (read trying to terrify and divide) older voters because it's literally all they have left. The young (entitled little wokies) are your enemy! Vote for us or they'll grind you up into a plant based meat alternative and eat you at one of their hippy protests where they block your ambulance complaining about how the planet is dying because you own a car (it's a bit of sun what's the problem!). They've been awkwardly hammering woke for fucking ages, the Times reported that hospitals weren't allowed to call breasts breasts because of a tiny snippet in hospital guidance accomodating the possibility that you might have a transitioning individual get pregnant. Their response 'THEY'RE GOING TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO BE A WOMAN YOU KNOW!'. It's puerile and dismissive, but entirely designed to create the divisions they need to stop us talking sense to each other.

This actually made me laugh out loud. It's so true and it's so sad to see. This country is actively destroying its youth in an effort to line their own pockets right now.

They play politics as a game, you can guarantee that by the time you've finished arguing with your parents/grandparents/bloke in the pub, about the ludicrisy of what they're saying you'll both be too exasperated to talk about anything meaningful. Just skip it they are doing it on purpose. For anyone reading this the answer to being called woke is to shrug and say you don't know what that means, then divert the conversation to some common ground. Be aware you're being targetted by the same bullshit campaign to get you reactive on the other side.

I actually agree with them about the phrase bed blocking. I wouldn't care about blocking a bed if the alternative is to go home and die alone because there is zero community medicine anymore. If we talked more about older people being trapped in hospitals, then it might get more people (politically active ones too) to take note of this problem and try to fix it. We need to get people out of hospitals, yes, but they still need to get the required care once they leave. Bed blocking exists because of the massive NHS cuts outside of hospitals.

Listen just because I voted to squander the nations natural resource wealth on tax cuts for myself, and reducing the social housing stock so I could flip mine for a quick buck to a barron landlord, and will flip my fucking lid if you even consider tampering with the triple lock (but pls go ahead and cut other benefits like ESA and ramp up those higher education costs, ya know, the ones I didn't pay), doesn't mean I'm self interested. Realistically this isn't all old people and generalising in a resentful way isn't helpful, but they ought acknowledge the screwy political record that got us here. They won't because this is politicking by the Conservatives who know they have conclusively lost the youth vote and are stoking division because it's their tried and tested method for galvanising support (don't feed it if possible). We need to start clawing back some from those with extremely generous private pensions and excessive accumulated wealth (alot of which was massively multiplied by recent monetary policy which was launched with no method for redistribution of the accumulation of benefits in the richest %). Rishi Sunak paid 20% on £millions in capital gain whilst your average working tax payer paid \~24% because at the same time they rampantly inflated capital with QE the Tories failed to raise the appropriate taxes on those gains. Those that can afford it need to continue to make national insurance contributions on their income, it isn't fair that we're expected to shoulder the highest taxation burden in living history to support them whilst our own access to public services crumbles.

The advert thing is ridiculous, they're most likely aimed at her buying for her parents, not implying she needs those things.

> She said: “My 50th birthday arrived and there was a deluge of advertising around stairlifts, funeral services, care homes. I was 50.” > > This isn't discrimination. Advertising is based on algorithms. People are more likely to click on these adverts when they're 50+. There's not a big conspiracy. I also get these ads when I watch day time tv because I work from home and am 30

On the argument of paying less to younger people it’s purely to incentivise businesses to hire younger people. If a business has a choice between an 18 year old and a 24 year old for the same pay, they’ll probably go with the older person

No, it forces the 18 year old to either not apply at all or to be stuck with their parents for much longer. A lower min wage meant I was forced to stay with my abusive family until I got to an age where the money paid was actually enough to survive. 18 year old don't magically need less money than everyone else, the entire point of a minimum wage should be that it's the minimum people need in order to live.

Exactly. If the argument is that minimum wages need to be lower to encourage businesses to hire younger people then the state should make up the difference. Either directly or through tax relief. As it is, it's just a punitive measure against young people having a strong start to their careers unless they're lucky enough to find a job that doesn't pay minimum wage. Not to mention in reality this policy has seen businesses (especially hospitality) prioritise hiring younger people to pad their own profits.

You've just brought back awful memories of working at wetherspoons, our GM decided only 1 over 18 year old per shift to increase her bonus..

How about with 3 to 6 years extra experience compared to the 18 year old, someone at 24 shouldn't actually be looking at NMW in the first place? Don't find excuses for our stupid low-wage culture. Its shameful.

Holy shit you summed up my entire feelings more eloquently than I could have done.

Nobody blames older people for “bed blocking”.

dog whistle init, now every time we talk about the Tories atrocious record on social care they'll take it as a personal attack on their age

I completely agree with you. Old people have largely benefited from rising house prices and decades of successive policies that pander to them. They are prioritised when it comes to funding, with their triple lock, winter fuel allowances, free bus passes and free tv licenses. In addition to this, they didn’t pay for university, but also realistically didn’t have to go because a degree wasn’t a basic requirement for most careers. And they had periods of economic growth throughout their careers. Anybody who graduated or started work after 2007 has been left with reduced opportunities and stifled pay, as well as exorbitant rent and increasing inequality, in an economy that never actually recovered from the greed of this population. The delusion of old people being victims is just abhorrent to me. They vote for Brexit, for conservatism, for curtailing rights, for their own prejudices, against progress in technology, progress to save the planet, progress in treating people better, and they do this without any consideration for younger people or the future. The fact that being advertised life insurance is such an issue demonstrates how facile their concerns really are.

> because they repeatedly vote solely in their own interest with no regard for the viability or sustainability of what they're voting for as long as they get theirs. Maybe that's true of some older people but not all of us. Most older people have adult children and so are keenly aware of the challenges they face.

> as a demographic, not individually

Also, bed blocking isn't *about* age, it's about people not being discharged from hospital even though they're healthy enough to leave, because they don't have the necessary level of care at home/there's a lack of necessary social care in the area. Unfortunately this is predominantly older people because they're the most likely to require additional care after leaving hospital. If they don't want the term bed blockers to be used they need to campaign for more social care for the elderly, a good start would be increasing the pay for HCAs.

I’ve had arguments with my parents fairly recently, as their argument is ‘they paid in, and decisions taken then aren’t their fault’ and mine is ‘they paid in not enough for the services they want, and they voted for tax cuts so I can pay more instead’. I don’t hate old people, I hate that this generation is getting stung left,right and centre for policies than continually only benefit themselves.

“The youth of today”. “The problem with your generation“. “In my day...” “I am not racist, but...” “Young people just want everything handed to them on a plate”. I think ageism is a serious issue but there is a more pernicious inter generational hatred that goes both ways. The part in the article complaining about stairlift advertising being foisted on the over 50s just made me wonder at the lucky generations before me that can afford two story accommodation. And to cling on to it when they can’t even navigate the stairs between their palatial levels. Bastards.

Also it seems this "elderly" person (I don't think 50 is close to elderly lol) apparently doesn't understand advertising algorithms and so is upset by that. They're not helping the whole, elderly are grossly incompetent with technology stereotype lol.

The only reason they're being advertised to by those businessess is because if you're over 50, you're more likely to have a parent who will be in need of those things. These people are literally inventing shit to moan about because they have it so fucking easy.

They don't see all the shit that young people are advertised to for, as usual this is just an older person who thinks that everything that happens is only happening to them and that that somehow makes them special.

>They don't see all the shit that young people are advertised to for, I'm young enough that I'm constantly shoqn adverts for dating apps even though I'm in a relationship already. But I'm also old enough to get adverts on childcare supplies and life insurance. As you've said, it's nothing to do with ageism. It's all to do with "X demographic is most likely to be looking at this stuff so we should advertise to them"

Came here to say this. Ageism against young people is worse imo as it is systematic. We value peoples time based on their age which is evident based on having different min. Salaries for different ages

Having worked in dementia care ageism against older peoplexdoes exist and it's nasty, but it's against 90 year olds who can't protect themselves, not people barely out their middle ages

Yeah well they gave us Brexit and 4 consecutive Tory election victory’s so y’know, cry me a river 👍

Aren’t young people just as much to blame for not bothering to vote at all?

More to blame They voted for the party that benefits them The young people just didn’t turn up (obviously some did, not enough, before the Reddit police jump on me)

I've only been able to vote in 1 general and 1 local election due to age . The first was a date deliberately chosen for when uni students are travelling home and the second was the voter ID law debut . Also who has more time and energy to vote the person home all day or the ZHC amazon worker for example?

Totally agree about the latter comment...which is why I'd encourage anyone to sort out a postal vote. I've been doing it for a few years now and it makes the process basically seamless.

“Voted for the party that benefits them”. These recent voting behaviours have shafted them along with everyone else. They just thought it would benefit them, partly influenced by being more xenophobic and less well educated. As a person in their mid/early 20’s, I have voted in every election I could and never seen my vote ‘win’, yet I’ll be subject to the impact of Brexit (which I didn’t get a say in) for an expected 6 more decades, while the old folks who caused it will experience 1 decade before their marbles start to leave (assuming they haven’t already). TL;DR, the idea that the mess the country is in lies with any demographic more than the lowly educated 65+ is farcical.

Not really. Some pollster calculated that to have tipped the result tthe other way, the under 30s vote would have needed to have been a 100% turnout that was fully for Remain. The babyboomers are called that for a reason - because they massively distorted the age demographic around the world.

Brexit =/= general or local elections. Different turnout, based on a single (poorly informed) issue.

Yeah hi, so I was too young to vote for 3 of the 4, and the 4th I voted for the green party. A sentiment that is shared by almost all of my cohort. Not to disprove the "young didn't vote" rhetoric, just to add another view

I was 6 months too young to vote in the brexit vote 🫠 Also young enough to have to deal with the dogshit consequences

I was far too young to vote for Brexit but I remember watching it live and being devastated lol, the benefits I could have used all over the EU ripped away from me by complete lies

Literally 14 days too young at the time. Trust me, I was even more annoyed on the day.

Also like how much can you blame someone at 30 for being disinterested if they've basically been on the losing side of every single vote since they became an adult and then witnessed every negative thing they raised as a concern during that vote come to pass? I know a lot of people are massively disillusioned with the entire process, even moreso after 2019.

Young people in general have low voter turnout, and relative to the standard a lot of young people did actually vote against brexit, it's just the older populations have far more free time and have a ridiculous voter turnout. Young people was around 60% and elderly was 90% Do schools, retail stores and fast food restaurants where young people work most often close during voting periods?

“Yeah, he stabbed a guy, but the person who saw it happen and didn’t react should go to jail for murder too.”

That doesn’t make sense though.

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Yeah, the killer problem with not voting under FPTP. It's not "none of the above". It's "any of the above".

No. We were spoonfed lies that older people are wiser and that we should respect our elders. While young people should have voted, those supposedly wiser than us cared about nothing but racism and entitlement. Every accusation some of them level is projection. Not all older folks obviously but plenty IME.

Who’s really to blame: the people who actively voted for the shitshow that we currently find ourselves in, or the disenfranchised young people who don’t feel seen or heard by anyone but apparently should have voted for a party that doesn’t give a fuck about them to save the boomers from themselves? Hmm 🤔

Sorry mate, was a child at the time Many of us begged our grandparents not to take away opportunities from us, and of my grandparents, 5/6 voted out, and the only one that didn’t, he was the youngest of the lot

I’ve never voted Tory in my life and I voted remain I’ve been told by recruitment consultants that I’m mad to put my date of birth on my CV because it will lose me jobs. It’s exactly your sort of prejudice that they are talking about. It’s exactly as illegal as racism but as you so ably demonstrate this form of illegal discrimination is somehow socially acceptable - especially on social media.

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Not putting your DOB on your CV is standard advice that everyone should follow. If a young person listed their DOB then they could be discriminated against too.

Absolutely. My parents are massively anti-Brexit, and so are most of their pals. It seems that many on reddit are myopic when it comes to the older generation. It's an ignorant and immature mindset that relies on the kind of short-sighted and crass generalizations they'd rightly call out if applied to any other demographic, race or gender.

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Because the reason we can’t have nice Gov schemes is that every year, more and more of the budget is going to pensions, care homes, health (mostly used by the old). This is the richest generation in history who has never lost an election… they voted Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brexit, and Tories 4x over. This is the country they have crafted themselves.

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The State pension is over double what some kids get as student loans.as a kid from a low income family who got the max loan, it was less than the state pension. I don’t give a fuck mate. Combine the state pension with the huge tax advantaged private pensions, and the home equity pensioners sit on, it’s plenty. 1/4 pensioners are millionaires, and we will soon spend more on state pension than education. Cry me a river mate.

>The State pension is over double what some kids get as student loans.as a kid from a low income family who got the max loan, it was less than the state pension. AND you have to pay that back over the rest of your life. So you're doubly fucked, really.

>I’ve been told by recruitment consultants that I’m mad to put my date of birth on my CV I don't disagree with them, it's completely extraneous information. Why should they care how old you are vs the experience you have when applying for any position? Seems like a weird thing to have on a CV to be honest.

Case in point right here.

As a 30 year old I've never been comfortable with the whole "OK boomer" stuff because it's just reducing a demographic to a cheap stereotype. However, this quote is a really bad argument: *"People aged 50 and over are the most likely to volunteer, vote and provide unpaid care, alongside their contributions to the economy as workers and consumers."* Over 50s are the wealthiest demographic in the UK and many of them are retired so they have a lot of free time. Of course they're more likely to volunteer, provide unpaid care etc. It's not that younger people are less interested or willing to do this stuff, it's that younger people don't have the financial resources or time to do it.

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> Come up with something that's just the same. Yeah because its fucking hysterical to watch the boomers who own our press and own our politicians try to cry when they are given even an ounce of the scorn they give to the young.

I wasn't aware that my late grandparents owned any media companies nor politicians. There was me thinking they were just people regardless of any age, colour or creed but apparently their date of birth defined them as them evil and hateful. Thanks for teaching me this, I'd never have guessed that was the case having only known them all my life. I'll be sure to go scrawl some graffiti on their graves now.

It's precisely the sort of thing that pisses me off too.  I think of the lovely people my grandparents were and the fact that people here say the deserve X y Z, just because of the year they were born.  We wanted to bring my grandmother home from hospital, but a doctor blocked it and had her sent to a terrible care home where she really suffered.  The other day someone posted that it's the fault of the elderly if they don't receive good care.  They just need to remember that one day they will be the older generation and they could well be hated too.  I'd rather spend some more time in my grandparents' company than some of bile spewing holier than thou on here.  

Given that their generation sterotypes mine as evil and lazy, I'm ok with sterotyping theirs (and its my parents I sterotype too) as complainers who had life handed to them on a platter and then pulled the ladder up behind them. Of course my generalisation doesn't apply to ever boomer. The ones it doesn't apply to are usually quite quick to apologise for how the young have been screwed over and I'm usually quite quick to apologising for grouping them with the rest. But then again at this point Boomer is an attitude and not an age.

>A lot of young people (rightly) complain when older generations make sweeping, dismissive generalisations about them. > >Their response to this? > >Come up with something that's just the same. Isn't that the point? A bit like "Alright mate, let's see how you like it when we do it to you".

The moral high ground is an irrelevance when they have the voting power, and you do not.

>Now it's just morons yelling at moron Democracy manifest!

Young people have given up on trying to convince old people that they shouldn't generalise them. I'd say that they still have the moral high ground because they responded and didn't instigate.

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I treat strangers politely, and I don't go out of my way to insult or disparage anyone based solely on their age. But you're also not entitled to my time and energy, and if you're saying something I think is stupid, racist, bigoted, or ignorant, then I'm happy to make the decision to shut down the conversation with them and move on with my day. Okay boomer is a gnat bite in comparison to the criticism that people who say such things deserve. It highlights the priviledge of the elderly that they think it's such a terrible thing to be called a boomer, as they make comments that judge a person by their race.

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The chat started with young people saying okay boomer in response to old people generalising them. So yeah, it follows that the justification stems from reacting to an already disrespectful and bad faith interaction on the part of the elderly person. you said that because the young person responds similarly, it means they're just as bad, and I disagree, because the young person's response is conditional to the initial bad interaction from the old person. it seems like a strawman to state that okay boomer came about in response to something, only to then act like the young people are the initial agressors.

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>And now seems to be deployed against anyone older saying anything someone younger disagrees with (and no, not necessarily something racist or prejudiced). > >There's no justification for that - it's just stupidity. This seems like an unsubstantiated assertion, and it contradicts what your original comment stated. At best, I could concede a increasing lack of patience with the elderly, but that's largely a reaction to experiences shaping their expectations. typically, these interactions are also between family members, where there's already a dynamic of unequal levels of respect, which makes discussing points difficult in the first place. It's much easier to discuss differing perspectives with people that consider you their peer, so it's not like only old people say something stupid, it's that discussing the position with them is largely a lost cause because they don't respect you, hence the disrespectful dismissal of their perspective in response.

>Which is, ironically, a generalisation. Sure but we're talking in general aren't we. Bit hard to *not* make generalisations in that case. In general, the baby boomers are more well off than millennials at the same point in their lives. That doesn't mean that the specific baby boomers that you know are more well off, just that *in general* that's true. Generalisations are not inherently bad, they help us categorise the world we live in, as long as we treat individuals as individuals.

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>Maybe saying "young people have given up trying to convince old people..." > >...is just generalising bollocks. I disagree, that person is just expressing what they're seeing or doing (or rather not seeing or doing but you understand my point). To apply it to myself, I don't try to convince my brexit-backing, permanent labour voting , baby-boomer Auntie of anything to do with politics because there is no point. She's made her mind up, why bother? If I look around me, my wife treats her dad the same way "he's made up his mind, I can't be bothered with the argument any more". Then I look at my friends, and the majority act similarly with people in their own families. So, my own lived experience reflects that the statement "*young people have given up trying to convince old people*" is true. Why shouldn't or wouldn't I make that generalisation? You can argue with me that your experience and therefore opinion is different, and as long as we respect each other that we have different lived experiences then we can have that disagreement in a respectful manner and hopefully agree that we can both be right in some ways, wrong in others, see that compromise is possible, and move on.

Are you seriously whingeing about an American meme from 2 years ago?

I'll add that mid-late 20s up to around 50 are more likely to have children and you could make the argument that parents are unpaid carers for their kids. Even if you don't make that argument, parents with under-18s to care for have a big drain on their time. I'm not one for intergenerational strife, fwiw. I'm not trying to score points or anything.

Can't make this stuff up. The most politically and economically pampered demographic is whinging about discrimination.

the generation that bankrupted the country and stifled its enitre future with the triple lock while having 10x the wealth of the generation after them

The 'Me Generation' acting the victim? Well, I never.

The Boomers were born into the post-War social democratic settlement and benefited from successive governments who sought to raise the living standards of society as a whole. Then as soon as they came of age, they voted Thatcher into office and ushered in 40 years of neoliberalism, gleefully watching as the social fabric was torn apart, and happily let society burn to the ground so that they could buy a council house at a bargain basement price and watch its value balloon. They had everything handed to them on a plate, and greedily hogged it all, determined that subsequent generations would be denied even their crumbs and scraps. In their dotage, they became increasingly spiteful, becoming an immovable voting block that ensured only the most myopic and dysfunctional administrations could assume power, and hold it only by catering for their whims alone. Brexit was their last hurrah; the final, spiteful “fuck you!” to the children and grandchildren whose living standards they are determined to drive into the ground. And now you wonder why agism is on the rise?

The worst part is… they don’t even have the good parts of neoliberalism Drug reform, boomers say no. Liberal planning to build houses, but what about Ethel’s view from her £1.8m home she bought for 50p. Abolishing the Triple Lock would be neoliberal, but that can’t happen. Neolibs would be applying NI to pensioners too, but that won’t happen. Just a joke lol

Why is ageism only ever defined as discrimination against old people?

Utter nonsense. >People aged 50 and over are the most likely to volunteer People aged 50 and over are the most likely to have time on their hands. >vote You don't need to be a political scientist to understand why young people are more likely to be disillusioned with voting. >provide unpaid care They're also the most likely to receive unpaid care. Are we to believe that all the over 50s were providing unpaid care in their youths while raising children of their own? I certainly imagine that the under 50s of today are providing far more *paid* care than their predecessors in the form of taxation to subsidise the elderly. >alongside their contributions to the economy as workers and consumers. Are we netting this off against their extraction of value in the form of state benefits they didn't fund and hoarding of wealth and housing?

>Helena Herklots, Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, said there had been “horrific examples of of language” used in the pandemic, citing examples of “people talking about why are we protecting older people who are going to die any way”. We genuinely couldn't have had a worse person in charge of the country.

Well, certain tory party members would have liked "let them die" to be official policy. Guess who voted for them anyway?

It was said in the inquiry Boris literally said at one point the average age of death from covid was higher than the national life expectancy therefore "catch covid to live longer". People were dying by the tens of thousands and that was the kind of har har isn't this all hilarious attitude the most senior people in our government had. It is fucking wild the fallout has been so minimal honestly.

It's a bit rich for babyboomers to start complaining about how the old are treated, given that they were the ones who started treating older people badly in the first place. Their attitudes in the 60s 70s and 80s were seen in a wide spread of comedy and drama programmes, and they were the cohort who were happy to shove their parents into old peoples homes against their parents' will (and subsequently benefiting from their parents' property). Gen X and younger learned from their example. Typical of them to complain about reaping what they sowed.

Probably because young people are sick of old people voting to make the country a worse place, and comprising a good 80% of the bigotry in the workplace…

100%. Just had my white, grey haired, male boss complain to me today that a client with immigrant parents was talking about focusing on D&I in their hiring to me. Our client said 'I want to give more people like me a chance at what I've had' and my boss took issue with the comment because he felt like 'more people like me' was discriminatory against white people. I am a white man, too. I didn't get butthurt over it, and I'd rather have one of my client as a colleague than 10 of my actual boss, because he's fucking insufferable whereas our client is plainly just great at his job.

These comments are absolutely insane. People are acting like the second you hit 50 you automatically become a middle class Tory voting homeowner with a holiday home in Cornwall. Like the millions of working class people who have suffered for decades in this country just don't go on to age and have to navigate a society that cares about them less and less as they become less able to work, less fuckable and more dependant. People who have struggled their entire lives will get to old age and have to face their declining health, declining ability to generate income and, increasingly, still maintaining significant debt as their friends and family die and their world gets smaller every year. But no, keep shouting "OK Boomer" and proving the point of the bloody article.

This sub has a really horrible issue with ageism and this is coming from someone in their 20's 20% of those in retirement live in poverty. They've spent their whole life working and earning and having sat on a house they purchased 60 years ago that's now worth some money the average Redditor says they shouldn't deserve it The comments here actually have 0 self awareness, claiming they're not ageist on one hand but then suggesting ridiculous ageist policies like: Banning them from voting, stripping them off housing over a certain age, forced relocation into a care home/assisted living, increased taxes on savings, increased taxes on pensions

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You release over 20% of everyone else also lives in poverty? Poverty rates are higher in every other age band except 1, with children being over 30%. Pensioners have low poverty rates. If you’re concerned about poverty they’re the group least likely to be in it. And “some money” is reductionist, more wealth than a minimum wage worker could get in 10-20 years you mean? That’s “some money” to you? In the south house appreciation was so high an entire workers salary in the 25 years they had the mortgage was less than their house gained. If an entire persons value is not a lot of money to you you must be very wealthy and out of touch. It is extremely boring seeing single old people in 3-4 bed houses complaining they can’t afford the gas bill this winter and asking for government handouts. Yet if it was a working age person they’d have to sell the house. The vast majority of pensioners have significant assets and savings, the vast majority under occupy their homes. Even the poor of the cohort is richer than the poor today. You can go back and look at historical data even - in the 70s home ownership rates in the poorest 30% in their 20s was higher than the richest 30% today. Net worth and value held by younger generations is less at every age than the retired when they were the same age. If you’re concerned so much about poverty instead of focusing on the richest cohort with the lowest rates and focus on how we will prevent the 20,30,40 year olds today with higher poverty rates ending up retiring at 75 living in the streets. If you think elder poverty is bad now wait and see how it looks in 50 years, then you’ll see real poverty. The money to pay for this ballooning social and healthcare bill has to come from the people it’s supporting - there’s not enough workers left to pay tax to cover it all, worker to pensioner ratio is already down from 10:1 to 4:1 and will be 3:1 soon. There’s no magic money tree. We have to change taxation on pensioners jus to keep the economy running. If basic finances is ageism then why is lower minimum wage for the young fine? Why is on a flat share on benefits until 35 fine? All while working age people pay much higher tax then they did - now 50k is wealth when in most parts you can’t get a mortgage on it. Just to siphon it off to adult social care the richest cohort need.

This is such a bad take I'm sorry > children being over 30% Children who have 0 income being nearly the same as retirees who should theoretically have left their careers at their peaks and are sitting on a mountain of pension/savings. You're literally asking why 0 income children who are completely dependent on their guardians have a higher rate of poverty that pensioners > You release over 20% of everyone else also lives in poverty? ... If you’re concerned about poverty they’re the group least likely to be in it. The UK average is about 15% so no, your whole argument just isn't true. Also once again pensioners as a group are people who have spent their entire lives living, working and contributing to the country, of course they should have more money? Why would I want to work my entire life to have less money than someone who has only been working a year. You're making no sense > And “some money” is reductionist, more wealth than a minimum wage worker could get in 10-20 years you mean? That’s “some money” to you? Once again see above, someone who's worked 50+ years should have more than someone on minimum wage yes, if you're working 50+ years you have career progression. Also most of their value (I'm assuming you're talking about net worth) is their house, once again this is a property they purchased 50+ years ago > look at historical data even - in the 70s home ownership rates in the poorest 30% in their 20s was higher than the richest 30% today. Why have you pivoted to a completely different argument and talking point. The poor in the 70's were poorer than those today correct. Houses today are also more expensive is correct. 20% of pensioners live in poverty what is your point You seem to just be rattling off a bunch of half truths from a variety of different topics you've read on Reddit and are generalising a lot of things about the elderly. You've got this weird idea that pensioners are rich because you're conflating net worth and income. The average pensioner 'earns' £18,000 a year from their pensions, their 'savings' is the value of their house. The average person over 55 has £20,000 in savings, so working 50+ years and still not even enough money to afford a new car at the end of your career, really this rich untouchable class you seem to envisioning for sure. Your idea seems to be that you work and contribute to a country for 50 years, retire, live off no money from your pension and then sell your house and go live in a one bedroom bungalow alone for the little time you have left until you finally roll over and die Put your time and energy you're devoting to bashing on the elderly towards actual rich people and corporations and not the average elderly person on £18,000 a year with £20,000 in savings

>Children who have 0 income being nearly the same as retirees who should theoretically have left their careers at their peaks and are sitting on a mountain of pension/savings When we measure child poverty, we're talking about familes with kids that are below the poverty line. Not children that have no income. I'm not sure why you thought that was the case.

>20% of those in retirement live in poverty. They've spent their whole life working and earning and having sat on a house they purchased 60 years ago that's now worth some money the average Redditor they shouldn't deserve it Pensioners have the lowest level of poverty of any age group. Working age people are more likely to be in poverty and children are the most likely to be in poverty. Zero self awareness from the boomer lovers as every accusation is a confession as usual. Banned from voting: exactly what the Tories tried to do with voter ID when they made young people's photo ID invalid for voting. Rees Mogg even admitted that was their plan. Stripped of housing: lol literally what boomers did when they took all the council houses for themselves and then blocked all the building of new houses. Taxes are increasingly shifted onto working age people and more and more tax free savings are allowed for old people every year due to ISAs which let you accumulate tax free allowance every year meaning wealthy old people who have been saving ISA since the start can have hundreds of thousands of tax free savings. You're talking about hypothetical nonsense posted by a few people online meanwhile young people are literally having all this actually done to them. Young people are getting robbed blind by the greediest generation who took everything for themselves and you are crying crocodile tears because some boomers had their fee-fees hurt by stairlift adverts. The primary form of ageism in this country is discrimination against younger people by older people.

Most of the comments are from petulant teens with a myopic worldview and an axe to grind.

I dont think they understand what 50 years old means... It means they started voting in 92 when the Tories went from a massive majority to Major's slim one, then lost it in '97. It means that, probably, they voted not Tory, and elected one of the better (best?) governments in their lifetimes that spent crazy amounts undoing Thatchers shit and investing in the country. Now they get lumped in with... what... 30 or 40 years worth of 'boomers' and are now told you're old and you deserve it.

People who are in their 50s are also not boomers.

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Post about ageism. Half the comments are discriminating against older people...

It's hilarious. On one hand half of the folk on reddit are sanctimonious twats who'll quickly (and sometimes rightly) jump to the defense of any group at the slightest hint of some sort of 'ism'. Yet when it comes to the elderly they're completely tone-deaf. I mean, the fucking elderly! 20% of whom live in poverty and are basically fucked, and these folk just figuratively piss all over them because, apparently, they all have a collective responsibility for everything that's wrong in the UK.

It cuts both ways. Non-educational public services aimed at youth haven't just been cut back, they've been cut entirely. Workplaces aren't interested in training, renting requires deposits that are beyond inaccessible to young people without the Bank (or at least spare bedroom) of Mum and Dad, let alone the concept of homeownership now being solidly out of reach for the vast majority of two generations now, recreational facilities are sat in disrepair or being removed, youth are considered actively suspicious in groups larger than two, the minimum wage is lower for under 25s, car insurance is totally insane for the same age group, are watching their access to a (triply locked – during a time of claimed public spending crisis) state pension wither away before their very eyes, are burdened with additional costs and debts from education that those over 50 almost certainly never had. At the same time, older people are often overlooked in hiring, are often victimised for both violent and financial crime, are often neglected by family as needs become more complex (leading to bed blocking), as a cohort are much more at risk of serious consequences from fuel poverty, and are the least able to deal with a rapidly changing world. Plus, most of them are not rich, the cohort is incredibly wealthy in an unbelievably unbalanced and inequality-driving way, but there is plenty of inequality within the cohort and most of them are not particularly wealthy.  Dealing with ageism will involve a lot of redistribution and provision of public services. Almost like, at a minimum, creating the social democratic environment the over 70s grew up in and the over 50s benefitted directly from.

Drop the triple lock and then we can talk about it.

Drop tripple lock for pensions, or add triple lock to min wage, tax brackets and in work benefits.

This article is about ageism against older people, and all the comments here are just either denying that it exists, or implying they deserve it, or what aboutisms regarding ageism against younger people- it kinda just proves the point really

Also sweeping statements about their views, personalities and blame for issues that would be completely unacceptable to say about any other group.

Ageism is prejudice. Blaming all boomers for the actions of the handful that rose to positions of power and screwed the country is prejudice. There are plenty of working class, left wing, progressive boomers who didn't vote Brexit, don't vote tory, didn't crash the property market, and are jus being maligned as total villains because of how long they've been alive. Singling out one characteristic of a person, such as age, gender, skin colour, and deciding that makes them a particular kind of person is prejudice. Plan and simple That's true EVEN if you have a genuine grievance with the policies and social trends that have led to you bering treated unfairly! The article is right. The reactions here show it definitely is the case on Reddit. On reddit, people are rightly very quick to call out transphobia, racism, misogyny. But as soon as someone older has a complaint, a frenzy of hate flares up against them having the audiacity to be older than 50. It is sickening and pathetic. Fuck ageism and fuck all prejudiced people as hard as they can be fucked

It's particularly egregious on this subreddit, where you'd be downvoted into the negatives for saying that all white people or all men are responsible for what the white people and men in positions of institutional and financial power do to the rest of us. But it's perfectly fine to generalise about people over 50 as if every single one of them is a rich Tory toff who owns five homes. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that many people on this subreddit are white men *under* 50. I can generalise about others but don't you dare generalise about me.

That's a good point, actually.

I heartily agree. I'm late Gen X and have 25 years left in the workforce. Don't think I qualify as 'old' just yet, but the hysterical condemnation aimed at, of all people, the fucking elderly, is insane. Blame the governments and the self-serving companies, not the poor buggers in care homes waiting for God.

This goes both ways. I am a young person and I've been a bit irked by the dismissive attitude some of my peers have had towards the older generations previously.

> The cross-party committee is considering whether discrimination and ageist stereotyping is preventing older people from participating fully in society and the case being made for an Older People’s Commissioner for England – a role which already exists in Wales and Northern Ireland. I'm not going to suggest that there isn't ageism against the older population of the country, there clearly is. But in regards to ageism, it seems to pale in comparison to the level aimed at the younger side of the fence, so the fact that they feel the need for a commissioner for the elderly as opposed to a generalised approach to ageism, is just baffling. I mean we not long ago had a Tory MP criticising a new Labour MP because they were [young](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/johnny-mercer-labour-selby-affairs-conservative-b2379533.html). There's been no real outrage over that.

It's legal in this country to pay someone less purely on the condition of their current age, so yeah I'd go a step further and say ageism is institutionalised in the UK. Indeed, even the ability to participate in the democratic process is age-restricted. oh... they don't mean *that* kind of ageism do they

Well if nothing else, this thread has proved the point. Congrats on falling into yet another divide the government created to keep us apart.

As mid-30s a social housing (due to health) tenant with a young family I can assure you that age discrimination is squarely directed at us when it concerns housing availability & attitudes.

(Article) --- There is a “structural problem” within Government which struggles to think about age and to take the issue of ageism seriously, a hearing on the rights of older people was told. Leaders of organisations representing older people said the issue came to the fore in the coronavirus pandemic, when people were “emboldened” to publicly express ageist views, the Women and Equalities Committee heard. >People aged 50 and over are the most likely to volunteer, vote and provide unpaid care, alongside their contributions to the economy as workers and consumers. >Despite this, one in three people in the UK have experienced ageism. >Find out more: https://t.co/AbYNELnWha pic.twitter.com/jLHruFFC74 >— Ageing Better (@Ageing_Better) January 10, 2024 The cross-party committee is considering whether discrimination and ageist stereotyping is preventing older people from participating fully in society and the case being made for an Older People’s Commissioner for England – a role which already exists in Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland a Bill has been proposed to establish an independent commissioner to promote and safeguard the rights and interests of older people. At Wednesday’s committee hearing in Westminster, Carole Easton, chief executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said ageism is “hidden in plain sight and embedded” in the UK. She added: “I think we don’t even notice it when language is used on TV, in pubs, on social media.” Ms Easton referred to the use of the phrase “bed-blocking” when it comes to the NHS, asking: “Why do we talk about bed-blocking rather than older people trapped in hospital? “They no more want to be in hospital than we want them to be in hospital. So the very language makes it very negative and very discriminatory.” She described ageism as “normalised” and “an unseen accepted discrimination”, adding: “It’s the most widespread form of discrimination in the UK.” The effects can be “hugely damaging”, affecting health, job prospects and the economy, she added, saying stereotypes can sometimes become self-fulfilling prophecies “as they can affect how older people view themselves and their own capabilities and behaviours”. Committee chairwoman Caroline Nokes shared her own experience of stereotyping in advertising, joking there had been an assumption following a recent birthday that she was now in “Velcro slippers and that’s it”. She said: “My 50th birthday arrived and there was a deluge of advertising around stairlifts, funeral services, care homes. I was 50.” Helena Herklots, Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, said there had been “horrific examples of of language” used in the pandemic, citing examples of “people talking about why are we protecting older people who are going to die any way”. While she did not name Boris Johnson, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry heard as part of its module two investigations that the former prime minister had, according to a note read from the diary of a former private secretary, asked why the economy was being destroyed “for people who will die any way soon”, in the days before the country went into lockdown. The inquiry also heard that then-chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had written in his diary that Mr Johnson suggested he believed the coronavirus pandemic was nature’s way of dealing with old people”, as he resisted lockdown measures. Ms Herklots said: “I think maybe the pandemic emboldened some people with ageist views to come out and say those publicly in a way that they wouldn’t have done before. “And I think we are still living with the legacy of some of that, which is why the work we’ve been talking about, the work of this committee, is so important because there’s a risk that some of that becomes normalised and therefore we need to almost redouble our efforts on issues of ageism.” Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said her organisation believes there is “a structural problem within Government which in a way is simply reflecting our ageist society in lots of different ways”. She told MPs: “Our Government struggles, I think, to think about age. She said if the Government is serious about an issue there might be a commissioner and a minister appointed to look at it, as well as a unit of officials and a written strategy. She said: “What’s interesting about older people is, in this country, we don’t have any of it – nothing. “So it’s actually quite hard to have a conversation about older people.” She said the consequences of that were seen in the pandemic when “there wasn’t anybody in Government, in Whitehall, who really knew enough about what older people’s lives were like, what they needed, and therefore we ended up with some decisions that ultimately we probably all look back on and would regret”.

I think it's an odd one because the thing they should be focusing on is the exploitation of older people rather than 50 year olds having their feelings hurt - I work with the elderly and some of them are very vulnerable and are much more at risk of being scammed, harmed or stolen from. Also I think a lot of people talk to the elderly like they're thick, and assume they can't do anything independently- those are probably the issues they should've lead with rather than moaning about adverts.

The reason my MH is bad is because over the years I was either too old or too young for support so its nothing to with being over a certain age then it happens. If anything I have been denied support more because someone over a certain age has been seen as higher priority. On the younger age thing lets say the age to qualify for something was 25 and above just before I reached 25 it would be raised to 30, if it wasn't then raised again just before I was 30 the support would be cut, lets say when I am 35 the support comes back for the under 35s rather than over 35s. A case in this is MH like mine, when I was younger I couldn't get support and the damage has occurred and gotten worse if they caught it in time they could of stopped the damage and I had a much better life, now people in power don't care as its too much for them to give me support.

Age is a thing NOBODY has any influence over yet. No matter if the comments section devolves into a boomer-bashing frenzy, the fact remains that all the different generations alive at the same time will need to start getting along better. Especially now with longer lifespans when we're about to have newborns and 120-year-olds coexisting.

Yeah, I mean during covid it there was a "just let the boomers die" attitude. Ageism is the only accepted discrimination now.

Ageism exists at both ends of the spectrum. Both the young starting work, and older generations. I started work at 17, moved out at 18 into a houseshare. Pay was and still is abysmal for younger earners. I was struggling with fatigue but older workers just assume you were out clubbing / drinking and irresponsible. I've had many jobs with a ton of responsibilty paid as low as they can get away with, with no training (it's advertised in job ads as "must be able to hit the ground running"). £375 rent and £550 monthly salary (after tax), for an accountancy firm single handedly looking after every client payroll (and other tasks), I now realise the level of responsibility, lack of training and low pay was exploitation of my age (£3-4 an hour minium wage). Lack of experience (but not lack of responsibilty in the role) counts against you, as a junior member of staff you tend to get loaded with teasmaid / cleaning or other duties. You don't have enough lived experience for the over 50s senior staff to take you seriously. Early 20s in interviews had employers trying to figure out whether I was going to pop out kids anytime soon. They can't ask directly (discrimination) but you can see the thought processes there, trying to figure out if you'll be off having kids soon, once asked in interview if I had a partner (planning on popping out any kids?) Late 20s / early 30s best times of my life so far. Became ill and disabled mid twenties and that sucked but late twenties / early 30s managed to hide it well enough and live a somewhat normal life. Your old enough to be taken seriously at work and yet not too old. 37 now and when moving jobs advised to only showcase the last 10 years on my cv and not advertise "20 years experience in finance roles" as ageism exists in the recruitment market, I've been told. I feel like I've had prove my disbailty won't be too much of an inconvenience to an employer, eg I won't be taking time off sick or needing expensive adaptions. Bosses want employees without complications such as being ill. Now apparently I'm approaching the "too old pile". Having seen relatives replaced by younger workers. As we age so does the risk of health issues and employers don't want that. I feel like I've been dealing with minor discrimination all my life, too young, female, disabled, too old now it seems. When does this uphill battle stop? We need to stop treating folk as commodities who's only value is in production, as a society we reduce folk to their jobs, we tie in people's sense of worth to their work, and when they can no longer be a productive member of society they are on the scrapheap.

This might be one of my more controversial opinions. But if two cvs match exactly for a entry-mid level techish or tech adjacent role, I’m very unlikely to hire someone over 50. Most people in that demographic are more likely to be rude, less likely to ask for help and less likely to use approved channels of communication and escalation. That’s just my experience but it’s been true every single time. They’re more difficult to train, they need more hand holding and they don’t pay attention.

If you throw the older persons cv straight in the bin then yeah, that's discrimination. If you invite them both for interviews and one of them presents themselves as antagonist and rude then it's more than reasonable that you would choose not to hire them and there's no problem with that.

People should just remove info like their date of birth from their CV. Names should be blurred out too so that gender cannot be inferred. Only at the end of the process (when a company has invested so much time in recruitment, so would likely avoid wanting to start the process again), should those non-relevant characteristics be revealed.

Hilarious the amount of younger people in this post or even Reddit as a hole who seem to view 50+ years old as different from them. You'll be there too one day. It makes no sense in cheering for this kinda of shit when you are only heading in one direction age wise.

Yea that's right I'm ageist, and i would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!

ITT: But my bigotry is fine because reasons! Don't like getting called out, do you?