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> discrimination based on age is just as illegal

Only if you discriminate against old people, it is legal to openly discriminate against the young.

I guess I'm biased because I'm young but it's a little non-sensical since young people are the ones with student debt and record-high housing costs to pay for while 50-year-olds have decades of savings and stock market and real-estate appreciation to fall back on if they find themselves unemployed.



>50-year-olds have decades of savings and stock market and real-estate appreciation to fall back on if they find themselves unemployed.

That's a lovely stereotype, but far from the truth; which is why so many people are working into their 70's these days and why reverse mortgages are on the rise.

There was an article in the newspaper (You can Google what that is) recently that noted that more than half of Americans have less than $5,000 in retirement savings. A similar number live in apartments.

The whole "decades of savings" thing is a cultural myth that Millennials use to make themselves feel like victims. Somehow they think they're the only generation that's ever been through hard times.


> Somehow they think they're the only generation that's ever been through hard times.

Not sure how you inferred this from my comment. My parents went through much harder times when they were my age.

However, unemployment would be a trivial inconvenience for them now at 50. They’d probably just retire and not bother looking for another full time gig. I don’t really know any 26-year-olds who could say the same.

Edit: I looked at the data and the median 55-59 year old in the US has US$150k in net worth vs. US$19k for the median 25-29 year old. Why would the former need extra legal protections against employment discrimination and the latter not?


Net worth and savings are not the same thing. But let’s pretend for a second it was and a 55 year old was to lose his/her job and never have another source of income. That means the $150k would have to last 20+ years on average, which is $7500 a year to live on. But now let’s stop pretending and realize that net worth includes the value of assets, like cars and houses. So the amount to live on is even less money unless they sell all their assets. We are also assuming the house, car, and credit cards are paid off and there aren’t monthly debt obligations.




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