Level Playing Field Institute

Mitch Kapor shows again that he is one amazingly enlightened and compassionate human being, in First Life and Second Life. THANK YOU for these gifts, Mr. Kapor. LPFI is one of the few places where we are beginning to see AGE represented on equal footing with race and gender in robbing people of fundamental civil rights, sociological common decency, and mutual respect.

Read about what actions survey participants and LPFI recommends to employers in order to improve race, age, and gender relations in the workplace.

Giving Notice: Why the Best and Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay (Jossey-Bass, 2007) offers a first-of-its-kind look at how hidden bias and hidden barriers are having a costly and profoundly negative impact on Corporate America.

HealthyYears.Org : Not Just More, but Better Lives

Charlie Warren's brilliant Campaign for Aging Research has broken into full stride, complete with Resource Library, 7 Specific Causes targeting each facet of SENS, and Programmed Support opportunities. What greater legacy could we possibly leave to our future heirs than doing all that we can to End Aging, Poverty, and Scarcity over the coming decades and centuries. No matter how long it might take, it will certainly take that much longer if we do not begin and participate with all due haste, today. How can we not pursue such noble and timeless goals, given the extraordinary new tools that we have today?

Neuroplasticity: The Basics

Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. As we learn, we acquire new knowledge and skills through instruction or experience. In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge (Neuroscience for Kids by Erin Hoiland).

Are there changes with life stage? Of course. Could there be trade-offs between talent, experience, wisdom, naiveties, insights, motivation, energy, work ethic, etc. which qualitatively level the Productivity Playing Field between the 18, 28, 58, 88, and 108 year old?

Because all human and market value is ascribed, the answer has to be, at the very least, a qualified yes; such trade-offs surely exist, but have perhaps escaped careful quantification and critical analysis for any number of sociological and technical measurement-challenging reasons. The premise strikes me as worthy of further pursuit, research, and documentation.

old.people.suck

Equal "props" to Old Masters and Young Geniuses

Some may mistakenly glance at this blog as unproductive griping or uncritical complaining. That would signal a sad failure on my part; a failure to be quick to highlight solutions and positive strides, as they emerge.

From PRI's To the Best of Our Knowledge:

Are you an experimental innovator who works by trial and error and is most creative later in life, like Cezanne? Or are you a conceptual young genius like Picasso. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the theory of economics professor David Galenson that those are [at least] two life cycles of artistic creativity. Also British singer/songwriter Nick Lowe. He's been making music since the 1960's but many critics say he's doing his best work right now. And we'll meet Oscar-nominated Millard Kaufman. He's just published his first novel at the age of 90. [Finally,] Amy Gorman is the author of "Aging Artfully," a book with 12 profiles of visual and performing women artists between the ages of 85 and 105 (listen now).

old.people.suck

APA: Fighting Ageism

Age stereotypes are developed and instilled from a very young age, just like racist biases:

Whether battling "old geezer" stereotypes or trying to obtain equal standing in the workplace, those who are 60 or older may all too often find themselves the victims of ageism.

In fact, in a survey of 84 people ages 60 and older, nearly 80 percent of respondents reported experiencing ageism--such as other people assuming they had memory or physical impairments due to their age. The 2001 survey by Duke University's Erdman Palmore, PhD, also revealed that the most frequent type of ageism--reported by 58 percent of respondents--was being told a joke that pokes fun at older people. Thirty-one percent reported being ignored or not taken seriously because of their age. The study appeared in The Gerontologist (Vol. 41, No. 5).

Want an easy way to find out if you're an AGE-IST bigot? Just insert the word BLACK, or GAY, or JEW, or any other discriminatory term for the world OLD in a video like this. Ha, ha, funny, funny, this is sooo funny, right? Or maybe not. Try it ... make it, "yo ... Obama he's so BLACK ... or Lieberman, yo' he's so JEWY ... or Harvey Milk, yo' he's so GAY ...



P.S. I've been campaigning for Obama since before he even entered the race for President, so you can chill on that trip, too, yo. I don't want McCain to be President, but using AGEISM is wrong, period. "But, but, he might *die* in office," you may say. Yes, he may, and Obama may get shot, or run over by a bus. The prospect of dying faces every leader, it has nothing to do with ability to do a job. Moreover, people much younger than McCain, in their 60s, 50s, 40s, even 30s are skipped over for jobs every day for NO OTHER REAL REASON than AGE. It's wrong, and it's ILLEGAL.

Mrs. Hughes

old.people.suck

62 y.o. Heavy Metal Monk

Yeah, so like F.U. you whiney little snot-nosed, weenie-pierced, punk-ass 18 to 34 y.o. worshipping society ... we can do WHATEVER WE WANT at ANY AGE we want.

old.people.suck

Just take the "black" or "hispanic" or "latino" or "gay" out of your resume

Could you imagine a major newspaper, magazine, or media outlet suggesting one of those courses of action ... in order to make your resume "portray a modern image?"

And yet, that's precisely what today's Wall Street Journal suggests in "Botox for the Resume: One Woman's Image Makeover."

It's not just offensive it's utterly REVOLTING and should be ILLEGAL in the context of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Period.

Is this what we have to look forward to now that Murdoch owns the WSJ? That's another topic altogether.

old.people.suck

Out of a job and out of luck at 54

Can't retire, can't find job:CNN - May. 21, 2008

It took those age 55 and older an average of 21.1 weeks to land a new job in 2007, about five weeks longer than their younger counterparts, according to AARP.

"Clearly older workers will be more adversely affected because of the time it takes to transition into another job," said Deborah Russell, AARP's director of workforce issues.

In other words, we now have at least ONE EMPIRICAL METRIC by which to measure the current impact of AGE DISCRIMINATION. It's a weak, manufactured, and understated figure, but at least it's a figure: "five weeks longer." In practical reality, it's five months to five years ... or maybe NEVER.

Companies like Bank of America (who tried to rip off my mother-in-law's 30 year service pension after 29.5 years of faithful service!) at least used to wait until 64 to toss you on the scrap heap. Now it's 54. At just 54 workers are increasingly told, "you're old, you're a burden, you suck, now get the hell out of here!"

But that's how it's supposed to be, right? It's a free market, baby. Stop your whining. You're old. You suck. Now get the hell out of here and go die like you're supposed to. You did your part and the value you left in your wake is now OURS. Surely you realized you were always just another disposable interchangeable part in the manufacturing engine, right? If not, you are not only old and pointless, but STUPID and therefore deserve even more to live in stress, debt, and squalor for the rest of your days.

The basic message from American business: "So what if you have a Master's Degree ... you're old, so you suck ... now go bag groceries. What? You spent all your money raising children? What? You spent all your money simply existing? What? You have some vestigial professional pride and self respect? How DARE you! Back to the cotton fields, WAGE SLAVE!"

Facts About Age Discrimination

In the words of the EEOC, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age. The ADEA's protections apply to both employees and job applicants. Under the ADEA, it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of his/her age with respect to any term, condition, or privilege of employment -- including, but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, job assignments, and training.

It's time to start filing these claims, people.

More Useless Trends and Non-starter Upstarts in Social Networking

True, only someone under 24 could POSSIBLY clue us in about such things, right? So go ahead and skip this post and be sure to keep up the Age Discrimination, even though you yourself are a victim of its relentlessly sclerosing sociological malignancy. Let's all just keep on working against our own best interest, shall we? Sure, yeah, that sounds good.

Besides, what's The Point, if you can't accomplish all of your life's goals in Less than The First Thirty Days, right? Anything that takes longer than that is a waste of time, right?

Oh, and since by far the fastest growing demographic in America is over the age of 50 -- and they only control more disposable wealth than any generation of consumers in history -- I think we should focus on their children and grandchildren ... you know, the really sexy hot ones who are like Totally Hot like Paris. The svelte and savvy experts at not just gaming consoles, but gaming your intricate accountability systems, abusing your pseudo-affiliate programs, and who have zero interest in "playing by the rules" of your meticulously thought out "programs."

Yeah, that sounds like a low-maintenance-cost plan, a real gold mine. So yeah, keep on hiring more young people and firing more old people. Make sure everyone is always chipper, chirpy, perky, and cackling merrily along with the herd. After all, anything less would be ... un-American.

And always, always, always remember: any proposed deviance from these Comfortable, Familiar and Self-Destructive Norms could instigate thoughts of CHANGE -- and change must always be opposed at all costs!

So I say, keep chasing those penniless, near-do-well MySpace cadets (anyone over 40 on MySpace is clearly a creep with nothing of value to offer) and forget the growing Eons of users in Well Established and Proven Markets who are flush with CASH and on average have 30 to 50 more years to SPEND IT.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

old.people.suck