Re: the column “Time for the revenge of Gen-X and the Millennials?”
Ageism is a destructive form of discrimination, eroding people’s worth and dignity as they get older. It is fuelled by outdated stereotypes and demeaning misconceptions about seniors that negatively impact their well-being and daily lives. Age discrimination informs public policy, reflected in poverty-level public pensions.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media is culpable in the spread of ageist messages and dehumanizing stereotypes about seniors. Even the choice of words in the column is patronizing and dismissive of elders. I am fed up with my generation being reduced to a trivial moniker of a past age. “Boomers” diminishes the dedicated people who worked hard to bring in universal health care and our social safety net.
The author’s use of divisive language pits young against old. It serves only to polarize people and deepen the divisions in our communities. Seniors have become convenient scapegoats for every societal problem. Now, according to the column, we are responsible for the worker shortage, a totally absurd premise with no supporting research from labour experts.
The column exploits the most insidious ageist misconception – the myth of the wealthy senior. With references to “huge financial windfalls” from real estate and being “financially set” from years of work, the writer fabricates a false world where few B.C. seniors live in 2023. The true reality of seniors’ lives today sharply contrasts with the author’s fairy-tale version. The B.C. seniors advocate asserts that almost half of B.C. seniors live on less than the lowest-paid minimum-wage workers, 25 per cent live on less than $20,000 a year.
In fact, the vast majority of the Generation X and Millennial crowd in B.C. have incomes far greater than your average senior.
Life has become much harder for seniors since the ’90s. Government austerity measures, harsh economic conditions and underfunding of seniors’ programs have made it impossible for many elders to save for retirement. Employment is more precarious and not guaranteed. Often there is no pension after a long career.
“Generational stereotypes aren’t worth much,” the writer muses. Which is exactly my point.
Doreen Marion Gee
Victoria
