The Evils of Ageism
This article first appeared in the Minden Times in December 2023.
We should probably retire the word retirement.
There are many reasons. It doesn’t mean what it traditionally meant. It doesn’t accurately reflect life. It triggers ageism. It ignites generational and political warfare. It’s unaffordable at both the individual and social level.
In 1965, Canada instituted the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) which defined 65 as the age of retirement. At that time the life expectancy of men, who comprised the bulk of the work force that would qualify for CPP, was 68. Now it’s almost 83 (less for men – 80.62 years, 84.67 for women). So the plan designed to ease the passage from workplace to grave has had to stretch the period of time it covered by about nine times. And counting: life expectancy inches up.
Put another way, the time between when we are expected to leave our working life until we are expected to die has gone from 2 years to 18 years over a mere 6 decades. Combined with the shape of Canadian demography, the big belly of boomers now spilling into retirement age, there is increasing concern that we can’t afford our aging populating. A smaller working generation worries about supporting a larger ‘dependent’ generation. (In stats talk, a dependent is everyone under 19 and over 65.) And the fire under the pot is that the larger older generation has the lion’s share of wealth, is hogging the high-paying jobs, is driving the cost of housing to unaffordable heights. It’s a recipe for ageism.
Ageism is not a good thing. Lisa Taylor of the Challenge Factory calls ageism ‘the last socially acceptable form of prejudice.’ It is more harmful than being spoken to simply and loudly as if you had the IQ of a caterpillar, or making/being expected to laugh at Old Fart jokes; it is the expectation that at some imposed point in time, say age 65, your value as a human being has reached its best-before date. You have statistically become a dependant. You are officially a drain on productivity. Logically, you – from the perspective of our money-based society – are better off dead. (Catherin Bradbury, in a lengthy article in the Dec 2023 Walrus on which this article draws heavily, cites a Yale prof, Yusuke Narita, who in 2021 suggested Japan’s aging problem, which is further along than ours, be solved by mass suicide and disembowelment of seniors; he scarcely walked back the comment when challenged and he has 600,000 followers on Twitter/X. Perhaps we should be really scared.)
But the dependents, the over-65s, in fact play a major role in making the economy hum. They are spending that accumulated wealth. 25% of those age 65-75 are still employed in the old-fashioned sense of the word, earning a salary. (In some places – Japan is mentioned – they are doing essential jobs that younger workers will not do. In other circumstances, they are developing alternate careers, treading occupational roads not taken, or abandoning senior paid positions to return to the craft work they loved.) They are paying taxes on their pensions, their earnings, and on savings not previously taxed. They are paying land taxes on their homes. Quite apart from the Golden Years advertisement of endless golf, lolling in Caribbean seas, downing cocktails and eating caviar in lavish cruise facilities, they are likely to be finding new purpose in their lives. This is captured by a Japanese word, ikigai, meaning ‘reason for being’ and is a major factor in longevity. it is why the endless holiday version of retirement as it was originally conceptualized so often ended in premature death.
Most importantly, however, aside from their economic contributions, ‘retirees’ are providing wallops of unpaid labour that is essential to the well-being of the economy and of society generally. Personal caregiving to children, friends, family. Helming non-profit organizations that provide all the services the government no longer consider their business. Doing the dog work of keeping public spaces and services tidy and functional – grooming trails, minding gardens, driving people to appointments, delivering care packages. Practicing good health habits to reduce the probability of expensive illness. This is not dependence. This is unrecognized contribution.
In this respect, ageism is in sync with other kinds of prejudice: It’s invisible. It’s normalized. It’s engrained in everyday language and ways of doing things.
When you get caught being ageist, you may shrug and do your aw-gee version of an apology, and carry on because you meant no harm. But you are causing harm. You are excluding a valuable sector of society. You are demeaning a potent economic and social power. We retirees haven’t withdrawn -- the literal meaning of retiring -- we’ve simply regrouped and are continuing to try and make the world a better place. Respect us, please.
