The Savvy Boomer

CNN Money doesn't acknowledge you if you are over 60

There are all kinds of quack sites offering to determine your financial health on the internet so I usually ignore them.  I felt better when I saw that CNN Money had a calculator, so I thought I'd try it.  But when I entered my age as 62, I was informed as per the screen below that I had to enter a positive number between 25 and 60 for my age.  AHHH, never mind the $200k I entered for income, I was just trying to see if there was any point it would acknowledge me.  Apparently not.  Guess I'm too old for CNN Money.  Geez, does that mean CNN is ageist?

Ageism is the only ism you can get away with today

The Times Online has a pointed article that uses John McCain as an example of how public remarks about ageism still seem to be acceptable in our society.  Let's hope that ageism soon goes the way of most other "isms" that were acceptable 50 years ago but are no longer tolerated in the 21st century.

Thanks to Dick Stroud.

Canadian beer company uses ageism in an advertising ploy

Kokanee has highlighted a middle aged guy for a few years in an attempt at humor ads about a park ranger constantly being outmaneuvered by his nemesis, a sasquatch (hey, this is Canada after all.)  Now they have a theme where he may be replaced with a "younger and hipper" ranger.  The hook is that viewers get to vote online whether or not to keep him.

Personally, I think the ads are not only corny but I thought they were playing with fire on this one by using age as a termination reason.  Of course, it is meant to be funny and overall, things are working out for Kokanee because the vote is running 4:1 in his favor which is surprising to me because their beer is mediocre (and that's being nice) and their target age group is the under 30 demographic.  I guess beer drinkers aren't ageist-or are too pissed (that's Canuck-speak for drunk) to care about age.

Click on the graphic below to see the Kokanee ad.

Purpose Prize recognizes social contributions of 50+

We have written several articles here about ageism. It seems that most people under age 50 don't seem to even realize it exists, let alone the fact that it is a very real problem with its own unique issues.  There are however, a few organizations that make people more aware of the benefits of an aging population by rewarding older citizens for their contributions to society.

One of these is called Civic Ventures and since 2006 has awarded the Purpose Prize:

"Five $100,000 investments and ten $10,000 investments in exceptional individuals who are defying expectations by channeling their creativity and talent to address critical social problems at the local, regional, or national level. 

The winners are effective and action-oriented innovators who have launched this work after their 50th birthday. They work in nonprofits, government, or for-profit organizations devoted to tackling the hardest challenges of our time: homelessness, social justice and human rights, violence, poverty and hunger, health, education, and the environment, to name a few."

You can see the qualifications and nominate someone by clicking below.

Ageism is not limited towards older people

Whenever I post about ageism or ageist comments, I usually only discuss ageism towards older people.  But the term ageism can be applied as prejudice towards any age group.  Have you ever discounted someone's idea strictly because you feel they are too young to have a valid opinion?  If you have, that's ageism. 

I give you my opinions on this subject as a 60 year old.  Now read the opinions of a 23 year old, on a blog called CJ Writer, who got my attention when this line hit my Google alerts feed:

"I dislike ageism with a passion"

A commenter gone wild.

After I posted about some ageist comments I found on  a few sites last week, one of the ageist bloggers took offense to my statement of facts.  She was civil enough with her comments but some disturbed (to put it mildly) reader of hers calling himself Micky (Mouse?) left such a diatribe of profane comments trying to prove that I was wrong and that he was a tough guy, that I blocked him and deleted some of his posts.  So he decided to use her site as a ranting point where he called me a "self-centered narcissistic prick" and said he wanted my "head on a platter, with my balls hanging out of my mouth" (he must be missing the Sopranos.)  He also called me a moonbat  and goes on to liken me to a terrorist .  Well, perhaps I was a little rough on him in my comments but he really was such easy pickings and begging for it.  Oh yeah, he showed his own ageist prejudices when he suggested that I blog about "Roid treatments, Discounts for seniors at Dennys all you can eat buffet and Looking for a strong bone like Sally Fields ?"  Charming chap!! 

His IP address has accessed this blog over 100 times in the last 4 days.  Maybe deep down he is just enamored with my sultry prose.  However, I have given my wife that IP address just in case she wakes up like Woltz did in the Godfather only instead of a horse's head, she finds my head on a platter with..... well, you know....

I almost hate to mention such a fine lady in the same post, but Shelly over at This Eclectic Life has some more interesting views on ageism.

Ageist comments often come with a disclaimer.

I get a kick out of people who say  "I'm not an ageist but..........." and then an ageist comment usually follows.  If you feel a need to make an ageist comment, just make it.  Chances are that the listener isn't any smarter than you are and may not realize you are being ageist.  If you say  "I'm not an ageist but..........." then the listener has been notified that you are probably about to make an ageist comment.  The only reason I even mention this is that people who make ageist comments tend not to have much intelligence to begin with so I thought I'd point this fact out for them. 

Here are some examples I found on the net within the last few hours.

I don't want to appear ageist - but the reality is I guess I am,

I have to vote for someone…and that someone will not be McCain. Mostly because he’s downright too old. I’m not an ageist.

I'm not being ageist here

Without wishing to be ageist, shouldn't you be whiling your time away on the golf course and fishing from a tinny?

If you're going to make an ignorant ageist comment

Don't link to your company and then post it on a high traffic sight like TechCrunch for thousands to see.  Or did she think that "old timers" are too technically challenged to read that site?  Or that  we all use Depends?  And she is shocked that a retirement home would buy interactive video?  Where was this person educated?

I won't be buying any products from Realview TV  and maybe some of the  "old timers" who work in the Fortune 500 companies they brag about are their customers should reconsider working with an ageist company.

Vanessa James January 31st, 2008 at 11:29 am
Many of these old timers are still leasing telephones from at&t. Eons should convince their VCs that they can sell “Depends” under cost and make it up in volume ; ). But a company that I consulted with did successfully sell interactive video to an retirement home. You just never know.