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To: maceng2 who wrote (51678)	7/20/2004 9:02:18 PM
From: AC Flyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

>>I seriously doubt AC flyers contention that the older experienced people getting back into the work force are contributing to greater and higher efficiencies.<< Well, that's not exactly what I said, PB. It is almost always a mistake to extrapolate one's personal experiences into a global construct. Though having grown up in the UK in the era of Arthur Scargill and stroppy 50 year old Union Shop Stewards in cloth caps dictating national industrial policy, I can see where you are coming from. As you pointed out, I wrote: Older workers, with greater experience and skills, generate higher rates of productivity than younger workers so we should expect to see the current high levels of productivity maintained. The point that I was making is that over the next decade the average age of the American workforce will gradually increase, due once again to boomer demographics. It is quite well documented that older workers are more productive than younger workers, due not to any particular magic but to mundane factors including longer workplace tenure, higher skill levels and greater emotional maturity. I have no wish to bore you with a bibliography, so one link will do: "Worldwide, chief executives believe that on average productivity peaks at 43 years of age. This level of productivity is sustained for an average of 15 years before falling off, the CEOs said." relojournal.com

To: maceng2 who wrote (51678)	7/20/2004 10:22:01 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 74559

PB, I've experienced the same thing: <I remember reading DJ mentioning several of his contacts in the plus fifty age group in Germany just cannot find work. I'll be entering the plus fifty group in a few months, and I suffered some employment difficulties a few years ago when I was canned from my high paid engineering job. > But I was only 40. I quit my high-paid job and moved to a place the company didn't want me to be, so we went our own ways. That resulted in a huge pay cut, and job-interest cut, and achievement cut. Ironically, it freed me up to really achieve things [outside employment] which I wouldn't have done if I'd stayed where I was in the rat race. Maybe I'd have done something even better if I'd stayed with the company, but that's opportunity cost, and I have no idea what that might have been. There wasn't work for me, using my old skills, at the price I was getting. But I did find voluntary work, unpaid, using exactly those skills and it was a lot of fun and achieved a lot. Those old guys could get work, but not at the prices they previously enjoyed. If they offered their services at $1 an hour, I'm sure they'd find work! There's work available, but it's a question of price. Not many people are willing to cut their price as much as is necessary. The welfare system means they don't have to. So they don't. Mqurice