A friend I hadn’t spoken to for a while remarked negatively on the none mask-wearing youth who were endangering seniors during the current COVID 19 crisis in the UK, this made me curious as to what was being written about the generation gap during the pandemic.
I read that we are a burden on society in so many ways, we have all the money, we vote for the wrong party, we’ve caused climate change and what’s more, don’t care and well why don’t we just disappear.
I’m an anti-ageist not anti-age hence I’m biting back!
Money: I’m 64 and have worked for 47 years. I don’t have a private pension, the small state one will not start until 66 ( we weren’t expecting that ) and I’ll have to continue to work, as I not only want to share my wisdom and creativity but I won’t be able to afford not too!
My point is, we didn’t find the money growing on trees, on the contrary, we worked and worked just like every generation before and after and had to adapt to whatever the circumstances we were given! 
Home: We all have our own home story and some of us will have been more fortunate than others. Forced to leave my home due to parental break-up I found shared accommodation. After sharing, I eventually had my own home at 34 with my partner. It felt horribly expensive then and signing up for a mortgage until sixty, a nightmare, I never expected to be given anything and so far that’s exactly how it’s been! Coming from a generation that prepared women to expect not much, I certainly didn’t know any single females who purchased their own home.
Climate Change: Friends of the Earth started in 1969 I’m not sure when I joined but it was a long time ago, yes the fight to save the planet post the industrial revolution has been a struggle against many facets of business and politics. Today fighters such as Greta Thunberg have the platform social media which we could have only dreamed of, the idea that someone could hear our message beyond our town let alone the world was unimaginable. Let’s be thankful for an oldie Sir Tim Berners Lee 65 years old with Robert Cailliau even older 73 who invented the world wide web. You see life is a journey an evolvement where one thing leads to an another.
Healthcare: The unhealthy and elderly had immediate focus when COVID 19 arrived in Europe, told to stay in for their own safety so to lessen the burden on the health services. Lockdown of retirement and nursing homes was for the best and not a choice situation, visits from a distance, strict measures in place causing emotional havoc. I think it is worthwhile reminding ourselves that the person in the home is not an elderly object as portrayed in some reports. Let’s focus instead on not the cost to society, but to the person involved who has more than likely worked all their lives, sold their home to pay 3000 euros, or more monthly to be taken into a nursing home owned by either a company or privately, who in turn, employ nurses, cooks, cleaners, management, entertainers, gardeners and I imagine a host of other necessities ensuring work for many. A worthwhile burden for some!
Americans come in first in consumption of medication, forty-four per cent take at least one prescribed medication with thirty-four per cent of these persons being over sixty-five, that makes for one very happy pharmaceutical industry which employs thousands of people throughout the world!
So far these pesky elderly are cash cows whether they like it or not!
Patrice Cahart of Le Figaro writes “Elderly people are not children who don’t know what’s good for them. They’re not second-class citizens.” at least there’s one journalist on our side.
