Part of a necessity of living is having a source of income. Now, with the average person it is difficult to get a job and it may be difficult to maintain that job. However, as one ages, it becomes increasingly more difficult to secure that job. In fact, as one gets older, they deal with prejudice and discrimination purely for being older than their coworkers. There are some extreme cases, such as in the UK where they are facing lawsuits in their major corporations due to age discrimination. In fact, people above the age of 50 have reported being locked out of their workplace and being forced out of a job. These people have not done anything wrong in their jobs and have been noble workers, but they are being forced out of work due to their ages. People are having a difficult time with this subject because employers strive to employ people with an extravagant level of experience, but experience comes with time and as people age, they maintain more experience in their field of study. However, once they reach a certain point, all deciding factors of them being an adequate worker gets wiped out due to their age and discrimination due to that number.
This related to the readings in the textbooks and from the lecture this week because aging and ageism go hand-in-hand. As one’s age increases, the amount of prejudice that is projected upon them also increases. The textbook stresses the fact that everyone is different and everyone ages differently. For instance, chronological ages do not define aging as a whole. there are many other deciding factors, including biological factors and genetics. Some people have genes that will help them age slower than others around them. Sometimes there are people who, chronologically, are sixty years old but consistently exercise and are still in the workforce that are aging much slower than a forty year old person who does not exercise and works from home. These two people, although chronologically being different ages, may be aging at different paces due to the other outlying factors. Also, biologically, white women are predicted to live longer than the majority of the population. Therefore, a healthy white woman is biologically predetermined to live longer than a black male. Despite these results, people have been discriminating against the elderly population for many generations. They view elderly people as less capable and less worthy of time and benefits. This needs to stop and more people must gain knowledge about these topics in order to ensure that change.
Word Count: 425
Aalyna's Sociological Perspective 