“But as I’m learning, feeling concerned about aging and how my job might be impacted is only a tiny part of the more significant impacts of ageism. It even plays a part in the global economy.
A 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) reportfound that older people who experience ageism have a shorter lifespan, poor physical and mental health, cognitive decline, and slower recovery from disabilities.
“Annually, ageism accounts for $1 in every $7—or $63 billion—spent in the U.S. on health care for the eight conditions with the highest healthcare costsamong people aged 60 years and older,” the WHO report shows.
Many of us in the media, at least progressive media outlets, are quick to point out racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, and antisemitism—but ageism is rarely discussed.
And that is actually one of the few types of ism that all of us will one day have to deal with, even if we are straight, white, middle-class, and highly privileged…
Although I will say (at least in hollywood, probably less in other fields) older men tend to be more well-regarded than older women.
Just kidding. As a person of age myself, I know what you mean, and I’ve ranted about it here more than once. It’s worth emphasizing that, like other isms, ageism is often used to divide and conquer by those who would rather not see the generations working together. And “generations” as defined by arbitrary birth years is a meaningless concept. I can get along with anyone who will respect my lawn and switch off the lights when they leave the room (I’m not made of money).
People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when…
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.
Deaths from malnutrition are rare in Minnesota, but they increased in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic — primarily among women 85 and older living alone in rural areas.
[…]
Social-distancing measures in Minnesota might have prevented hundreds or thousands of COVID-19 deaths, Mayo researchers said, but the resulting isolation contributed to the state’s 123 malnutrition deaths that year. The state had averaged about 80 malnutrition deaths in the prior two years.
[…]
Minnesota in 2020 had the fourth-lowest rate among U.S. states of deaths by malnutrition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, a Star Tribune review of preliminary death certificate data indicates a rising problem — with malnutrition listed as the underlying cause of 190 deaths in Minnesota last year.
Among those, 137 involved people in homes or independent living facilities. Another 53 involved residents of nursing homes. Staffing shortages in home care agencies and nursing homes have worsened and could be extending the problem even in the absence of pandemic restrictions.
Most blue collar jobs at the time Social Security was started also had pensions that paid out retirement at a set rate for the duration of the pensioner’s life, rather than 401(k)s that have a set amount that will eventually run out. More jobs were unionized then, too.
