IntroductionThe modern debate on age discrimination has in part been driven by the powerful argument that older people in advanced industrial societies now enjoy better health status than any ...previous generation. Intuitively, it would seem obvious that this must be so, and there appears to be much supporting evidence. For example, the economic historian Dora Costa, comparing Union Army records from the USA and recent health surveys, concludes that the health of Americans improved ‘remarkably’ over the course of the twentieth century, owing to the reduction in infectious diseases and occupational hazards, and that functional limitations among older men declined. In both Britain and the USA, death rates have fallen steadily over the past century, and life expectancy at birth has risen dramatically. Most adults can now expect to live healthy, active lives until aged well into their seventies.‘Working capacity’ must, therefore, have improved, making it even more morally objectionable than ever to deny older people the right to employment, and a waged income higher than could be produced by any pension scheme. Improvements in survival rates should have increased the heterogeneity in health status that becomes more pronounced with the ageing process. It follows, therefore, that rigorous performance appraisal should be used to grade older workers according to their varying degrees of working capacity, rather than the crude age proxies employed in mandatory retirement policies.Adding force to this argument is the changing nature of work.
Conclusion Macnicol, John
Age Discrimination,
01/2006
Book Chapter
This book has tried to confront the difficulties and ambiguities inherent in ageism and age discrimination, and to analyse critically the current British debate in its comparative and long-term ...historical context. From this perspective, it can be seen that ageism in social relations and attitudes is a relatively recent concept, emerging with a more ‘rights-based’ social and political culture in Western societies. As such, the modern ageism debate can be viewed as a belated and welcome recognition of the indignities suffered by many people merely on account of their age. There is substantial anecdotal evidence that ageism is widespread; although hearsay and experiential, this evidence is so powerful that it cannot be ignored. However, ageism is so closely bound up with strongly internalised and widely accepted notions of ‘age-appropriate’ behaviours and ‘stages’ in the lifecourse that establishing exactly at what point these notions become ‘discriminatory’ is difficult. For example, ageism is not as obvious as racism or sexism. Nevertheless, much still needs to be done to re-educate public opinion to respect the rights of older people. Certainly, if we do not combat ageism we are waging war on our future selves.However, this more ‘rights-based’ culture has also been associated with the emergence since the 1970s of a new kind of capitalism, and the attendant heightening of competitive individualism. When applied to welfare states, it argues that citizens have an ‘obligation’ to support themselves by waged labour and welfare purchased through the private market.
IntroductionIn 1967, America passed its historic Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the ADEA). With subsequent amendments, this Act has outlawed age discrimination in employment (with some ...exceptions) and has abolished mandatory retirement for all but a few stipulated occupations. It stands as the most comprehensive legislative action against age discrimination, and is often referred to in the British debate. This two-chapter section will trace the long-term origins of the Act (going back to the 1920s), including the lively debate on age discrimination and the problems of older workers that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. It will then consider the reasons behind the 1967 Act – itself something of an aberration in a country with far less employment protection than Britain. The operation of the Act from 1967 to the present will then be examined, and its ‘success’ in relation to its notional aims will be evaluated. An examination of the ADEA tells us much about the dilemmas and difficulties of action against age discrimination.The spread of retirement in the USAIn common with all advanced industrial societies, the United States of America experienced a steady fall in the labour force participation rates of men aged 65+ from the late nineteenth century to the 1990s. Basically, retirement has slowly spread down the age structure. Bearing in mind all the caveats about using census data as an indicator of actual labour force participation, we can see a steady downward trajectory in the labour force participation rates of men aged 65+ between 1890 and 1970 (Table 8.1).
The author traces the history of the age discrimination debate in Britain & the USA since the 1930s, with a critical examination of ageism in social relations & age discrimination in employment. ...Initiatives against age discrimination in employment are also discussed before concluding with an examination of America's 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Tables, Figures, Bibliog.
State pension ages have been raised, alarmism about future trends in life expectancy has become commonplace, the employment rates of older people have risen and old age itself is undergoing a ...redefinition.Lain's comparison of each country's different approaches is usefully and skilfully done, although the usual questions that invariably arise from comparative analysis inevitably present themselves: most strikingly, what exactly explains the variation in older men's employment rates between the two countries, such that now twice the proportion of Americans aged 65+ engage in paid work compared with British?...the great paradox is that those who most need a good income in later life are least likely to have it, and vice-versa.
There have been many changes in children`s orthopaedics and considerable developments in fracture management, markedly improved use of external fixators and the scientific development of, for ...example, the Taylor spatial frame to correct complex deformities. The use of ultrasound has increased considerably in the diagnosis of children`s disorders and there are more sophisticated ways of analysing deformities. There are also new classifications for unstable slipped epiphysis and our genetic understanding of children`s disorders has increased exponentially. TOC:Section I - Overview.-Section II - Generalized disorders.-Section III - Neuromuscular disorders.-Section IV - Regional disorders.-Section V - Fractures.-Section VI - Appendix.-Growth charts.
