In our modern, Western society which includes the ‘5 Eyes’ countries of the U.K, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, United States of America – and of course the European countries, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the southern Mediterranean countries and others it is clear that we are entering a post-industrial phase, much of our heavy and manufacturing activities are now located in the emerging economies of China, India, Korea and the Philippines; these ‘off shore’ locations now produce a significant part of our demand for electronics, cars, building materials, steel items, shipping and heavy machinery we use for mining and construction.
The Western countries bought into Globalism, the dreams of having our tedious and difficult work done for us cheaply, and at scale.
Billionaires are now fairly common, entrepreneurs and off-shore labour specialists have quietly been making a killing; since the 1990’s our societies have changed absolutely and forever, local skilled labour has languished, or sought to re-train and make the best of our Globalist economy.
We have entire towns and communities of previously affluent skilled labour just deteriorating and becoming sick with a spiritual malaise that opiates, amphetamines, alcohol and gambling now flourishes in, where previously nice healthy families grew up and lived the respective ‘Dream’ of their nation; millions have been displaced and abandoned by the entrepreneur class that once profited from them. Many have given up, taken to nomadic and precarious existences, cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, London, Sydney, Paris, Berlin, New York, are now filled with tent villages, and drug addled masses defecating in the streets, preying on urban city workers which pass by furtively, trying to be invisible to them.
A casual saunter through any of the major cities of the Western world is now a very sad, diminished version of their previous form.
Perspective is everything, to the still employed, the ones who chose wisely to work for the giant bureaucracies, the local councils, the official machinery of government life is still pretty good, life still looks viable; for the industrial workers, tradesmen, fishermen, and other areas which are vulnerable to this mass movement to off-shore, much cheaper labour it certainly is not.
We can see the fruits of this so-called Globalism all about us.
One group of people who seem to have been particularly affected are those people our HR departments describe as being ‘Mature’; Human Resources, people as units of economic potential, to the current rationalist breed of ‘HR’ who have learned the worst aspects of psychology and who regard each candidate with the precision of a virologist, ‘Mature’ people are a huge irritation.
Even those who are today over the age of 40 are finding it very difficult to secure long term employment, should they find themselves in the situation of not being permanently hired.
Experience, skills, these are both acknowledged as being valuable, but the nature and quality of work has changed, employers want compliance, box tickers and those willing to go along with their specific way of viewing the world. Very often the more mature worker tends to think independently, they have developed their own views and political position.
Someone between the ages of 18 and 40 is more likely to need their job, they are more willing to be quiet, to go along with the corporate vision, they often have partners, children, mortgages, medical expenses, premium fees for private schools: is someone in this situation going to offer argument?
The more mature workers represent an incredible ‘human resource’, but this also comes with the irritating elements of independent thinking and people who are less likely to look the other way.
Here in Australia we have well over 700,000 job seekers over the age of 45, these are made up of a disproportionate number of professional, and ‘high end’ occupations: Accountants, Book Keepers, IT professionals, Teachers, Banking workers, Managers, Legal.
Hiring a mature worker seems to be problematic.
In Australia the government has privatised the job-seeking network, now we have large conglomerate investor-driven enterprises who tender for the function of offering job seekers a service: this is linked to the central Social Security system, called ‘Centerlink’.
This system was previously all managed by the federal government, with employment agencies operating in each town and city; the privatisation of this layer has seen many problems emerge.
Individuals have to navigate a large number of requirements, they have to be seen to actively look for work if they are to receive the living allowances being offered, these enable an individual to pay rent and a few bills, and eat very modestly. The maximum rate of unemployment benefit, combined with a ‘rent allowance’ to assist with living expenses is around $777-820 dollars per fortnight, could you survive on about $400 per week?
It is good that our society offers this help to citizens, we don’t just turn our backs on people simply because they are out of work and unable to earn a wage, but surely we can provide meaningful assistance and tangible help for them to return to work?
We are living through unprecedented times, and these times affect people differently, if you are doing it tough imagine how the people who don’t have a job are feeling?
The privatisation of the employment services for Australians has seen huge profits being made by very large, powerful enterprises, the contracts to provide these services go into the tens of millions of dollars, this is all very tempting for investors, and groups of people who are looking to boost their investments, but what do Australians get from this approach?
Do people receive genuine support, and encouragement, do they find work through these very affluent corporate entities?
It seems the data of all of this is very difficult to obtain.
Ageism is rife in our society, that is the truth, we have close to a million unemployed mature workers in Australia alone, imagine how many there are in the U.K, USA, Europe?
We need entrepreneurs, and creative people among this massive body of superbly experienced and skilled people over the age of 45 to act, we are not going to get any help from the governments, I can visualise a national data base of skills, dedicated to the ‘silver tops’, this is a massive resource, imagine how many centuries of expertise is represented in this group?
We are not going to convince the giant corporate entities that the over 45’s are valuable, they only seek profit, it is in their best interests to just coast along.
SilvertopSkills, I like the sound of that.
