Documentary on Ageism and Employment

I am in awe at Patricia Sahertian's moxy. Her ability to see a problem and tackle it, head on, is so inspiring. After being impacted by ageism in the workplace, she decided to make a movie about it. The resulting documentary, Cut Back: facing ageism, has been posted in its entirety on YouTube. Talk about doing a mitzvah!

Here's the first installment of this excellent documentary:

Ageism and Unemployment

It appears that the problem of being old and unemployed is starting to get its due. There may once have been a time when it was possible to retire tidily and in a timely fashion and never experience age discrimination in the workforce. In addition, the commonality of corporate pensions would have taken the pinch out of a forced retirement --- it wasn't a layoff with a few months' severance, but an income stream for life. Therefore, the phenomenon of ageism and employment appeared to be more of an exception than the rule and would have carried a tremendous stigma ("He really wasn't functioning on the same level anymore," "She just couldn't take the hint and retire..."). Considering that most of the rule-makers and policy setters in our country come from this ilk - the college educated, white-collar job-set, the relative invisibility of age discrimination in the corporate world insured that there was a lack of appreciation for the problem in general... until now. Because of the economic downturn and the timing as it relates to the anticipated retirement of aging boomers... the problem is much more evident.

I'm not sure if it's just that my awareness is now heightened, or that, because of the conditions of the moment (lots of people approaching retirement age with wiped out retirement savings and high numbers of joblessness), but the issue seems to be coming up a lot more in the media. 

Just today, I noted it in this article on local homeless services:

"These people are desperate," O'Mara said. "They've paid taxes all their lives; they've never not been able to work. They don't qualify for much of the aid that's available because they have too many assets. But what do all these assets matter when you're 50 years old and you can't find a job?"

Who is Paul Hewitt?

After popping up a few posts that note Paul S. Hewitt, I thought I'd take a peek to see who he is and what he's up to today. Seems like someone with a specific agenda. Here's his bio from an organization he sits on the board of, the Youth Entitlements Summit (Yes):

Paul S. Hewitt (Executive Director)

Paul S. Hewitt is Executive Director of Americans for Generational Equity. His governmental service includes: Assistant Director of the Education, Workforce and Income Security division of the Governmental Accountability Office (2004-2006), Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Social Security Administration (2003-2004); and Professional Staff Member and Executive Director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations (1981-1985). He began his career in 1979 as a presidential management intern. In addition, he served as Program Director of the Global Aging Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1996-2003); Executive Director of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (1990-1996); and President and Executive Director of the original Americans for Generational Equity (1985-1989).

Aging Demography and Contemporary Superpowers

This December, 2003 Nova interview with Paul Hewitt, the then-deputy commissioner for policy at the Social Security Administration gives some fascinating insight to developing global demographic changes. It begins by illuminating what's going on in Japan, presently the world's oldest nation. This recap is great because it spells out why there's an age shift, what factors contribute specifically to Japan's age situation and some long-term implications.

Japan is currently the "oldest" country in the world. In 1950, it was one of the "youngest" countries in the world; it had a median age of 22. Now its median age is 41, and by 2025 it will be approaching 50. What's happened in Japan is a combination of low immigration and birthrates that are more than one third below the "replacement level"—that is, the number of births a society needs to have enough children to replace the people who die.

As a consequence, you get a demographic structure where there are fewer and fewer children as a percentage of the total population, and the median age rises. And, of course, the senior population in Japan is also soaring, because the Japanese enjoy the highest life expectancy in the world.

The interview then goes on to discuss global ramifications, economic, political and environmental. Here are some highlights:

The demographic shift is now set in concrete. It's coming, and it's going to change everything. For one thing, we're going to see the decline of Europe and Japan as economic and political powers. They will become cauldrons of permanent economic and fiscal crisis. Anybody who's looked at the news over the past year knows that it's been a period of constant pension reform in these countries. We have entered what is going to be a constant cycle now, a constant drumbeat of reforms.

These fiscal crises have geopolitical consequences. Europe already is too broke to help govern the state of the world, to do many things that vital and powerful countries do. This financial crisis will become more consequential for America for as far into the future as we can project, because we know that our key trading partners, for all intents and purposes, are finished as economic and military powers.

Wow, he's certainly confident in his assessment. What does he have, a crystal ball? Nope, just the fairly immutable factors of demography -- they can't foresee significant disasters like hurricanes, plagues or wars, but... other than those outliers, the numbers are fairly consistent and set in stone, giving a prognosticator a great foundation from which to expound.

Japanese Ingenuity Applied to Aging Crisis

I don't normally think of the developing demographic shift as an impending crisis. I believe in humanity's ability to adapt. That's Darwin's original credo, after all, isn't it? Evolve or die?

However, some countries are poised for more significant troubles than others. Japan, for instance, has low birth rates, nominal immigration and long life expectancy. All of these factors add up to make it the "oldest" country in the world right now, with the median age of 44.2 years (the United States' median age is presently 36.7 years, but that will probably shift once the latest census information is released). The United States isn't nearly as challenged as this - if anything, our immigration policies contribute to other nation's difficulties in retaining their younger citizens. At some point, I believe, traditionally closed nations like Japan will have to cave and open their borders. In the meantime, we can look to Japan's innovations as possible ways to help our own aging society.

This little article on Japan's robotic farming suits gives insight into a number of elements of Japanese society - its aging labor force, its agrarian ties and its innovation.