Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Should they be remembered & honored -- or forgotten, put aside & ignored?

We live in a "throwaway society." Everything is about youth! So many products are created or in most cases tweaked to push back the hands of time. Skin treatments, plastic surgery, body contouring, instant weight loss miracles. The latest craze is testosterone, the answer to everything.

Everything is done to avoid aging and getting "old." It seems when a worker reaches 50 years old, they are considered obsolete, useless, especially when a company can hire younger workers cheaper. There is a great difference between being smart and being wise. Hopefully we become wiser as we age. Being old is not a crime. The real crime is the treatment of these workers and people.

Corporations are always concerned about profit. By ridding themselves of older workers, they are shooting themselves in the foot. Older workers bring wisdom and experience to the market place. They know how to connect to clients on a personal level and build trust and integrity. They take responsibility and have loyalty. Think of how much money and the number of hours spent recruiting and training people who leave or are laid off every few years, or even months. Acting in this manner kills creativity. Everyone wants to be safe. There is no mentoring of younger workers by those with experience. 

There is a very high suicide rate for men in their fifties, men who used to be thought of as prime-age workers at the peak of their experience and ability.

From 1999 to 2010, rates of suicide overall have gone up, but the steepest rise was for midlife men.

In those years, suicide rate rose from 20.6 per 100,000 to 30.7 per 100,000.

Our nation has been promoting market solutions that pit midlife employees against younger (or overseas) workers to drive down wages, benefits and job protections in a race to the bottom!

 It is ironic, that despite our longevity, too many Americans are suffering from a very shortened working life. The message to younger workers is a dismal one. The American dream has faded.

This is an ethical and socioeconomic evil, leading to missed productivity and creativity, lost spending power, family disintegration, suicides and loss of hope. Is this what people risk their lives to get to this country for? Is this the model we want to present to our children of a bleak future?

Do not let "profit" destroy the richness that experience and wisdom can bring to our workplace, our society and our lives. If your lucky, you'll get old too!! 

Mark your calendar -- Thursday August 21st -- is National Senior Citizens Day in America. It is the day to acknowledge the contributions made by senior citizens in communities across the USA. It is the time to recognize the longest survivors. When life is valued above profits in a society, those who have lived the longest are remembered and honored -- not forgotten, put aside & ignored. Maybe the fact that millions look forward to Black Friday, while most people don’t seem to know anything about National Senior Citizens Day, National Parent’s Day or Constitution & Citizens Day -- sends a message about the values of our society.


Choose Life by Doing TOV!
Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor
President




No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.