Eighteenth Week-Too old to work?

When you get to a certain age, so some say, society decides that you should stop working. That's funny. I would have suspected that when you reach a certain age that people would be begging you to continue or at least utilize the knowledge you have. During this past week and in the previous weeks I met some fascinating seniors that were suddenly let go without a safety net to fall back on. It scares me because I could be in that same situation the way things are going. I don't want to think about it, yet I know I must. This is another huge barrier to work, one that few are addressing now. Yet I know that there are literally thousands trapped in poverty, too old to work (some say) and unable to break in the job market because of this.

A good number of these older citizens have unique experiences that could be utilized, but are being wasted. I mourn for that waste, because it creates a burden on us all to not have those experienced workers still eager and willing to share those experiences. Yes, I do know that there are a chosen few that have broken that barrier and have enriched the lives of those around them. I also know that there are scads of young people willing to work and have the required skill sets. Yet I can't help thinking of how good it would be if businesses would pair the old experienced worker with the young worker....just as it used to be before seemingly all the jobs were either eliminated due to technology or given to foreigners in a foreign land. Not that I'm knocking the global economy....but there is definitely a loss when you decide to go a different route with your business due to monetary cost.

So why aren't businesses and corporations doing this? Why are they complaining that there are no workers when the "field is white with harvest?" How can we put this "disconnection" between willing workers, both young and old and businesses and corporations behind us? I do know the first thing to do is to rehire the experienced workers back, reinstate pensions and have them train young workers. I believe that the problem lies in the sad and true fact that nowadays workers are expected to know too much and do too much. A better solution would be to hire more workers, and stop the practice of hiring qualified workers overseas until (if it happens)everyone here has suitable employment. Do I believe it will happen? I'd like to think so, but knowing human nature I have to suspect that it won't.