"I See Old People" Taking Over The Service Job Economy

[Igel]

92. It's a set of interesting juxtapositions between a few groups.

One is people like you, who have to go out and work to make ends meet.

Another group are those who don't need to work but do so after retirement. Like my father. He retired, gained 25 points in 6 months, and got another job. He worked until his wife made him quit (because she was under the impression every dollar earned reduced her SS benefits and couldn't learn anything different). Then he volunteered at a hospital until he was 82. He committed suicide Saturday night and Monday morning I answered the phone--the volunteer coordinator was wondering if he'd be coming to "work" that day.

There's the group like me--not near to retirment but I know people in both camps and know that the answer depends on the person. There isn't just one. And I like to argue for nuance and understanding: There's not just one group of seniors working scut jobs.

Then there's a group like some others here. They're like me, not retired, but firmly believe that there can be only one kind of senior working after retirement, and even if there are counterexamples given show enough ill-will to discount them or somehow say these people don't really count as people.

In other cases there are plainly ableist people who would never dream of being such if it wasn't required to justify their beliefs. So the very idea of a senior citizen working with a small oxygen canister. Why, they're clearly incapacitated and must stay at home, helpless, because they're, well, crippled. (And I use the term because the attitude expressed is precisely that: They are inferior and can't live an independent life.)

Needing to defend one's views drives one to stupid positions. Lots of implicit denigration and all-or-nothing kinds of thinking bubble up from the reptilian brain. So to speak.