You will either die or get older. Hopefully, the latter.

This post is a remarkable example of why age discrimination is so prevalent.

As an exercise, replace all of the discussion of age with gender or race. How very uncomfortable this post would be then.

If you live in a first world country, there is a good chance that you will live into your sixties and probably beyond.

Pensions no longer exist for most workers in the United States. The best that people can hope for is to have had a job that has paid well enough to fund their 401K and with good employer matching. The lack of retirement options means that many people will be working into their 60s.

Discrimination means that regardless of your background and current skills you will be discriminated against in the work place for factors that have nothing to do with the job.

Age discrimination means that a manager will not hire you because you are older, perhaps considerably older, than they are. It will not matter how well you can do the job or how much better you are than the other candidates. All that will matter is your age.

Someday you will either be dead or older. Assuming that you’re still alive, unless you somehow become wealthy enough to not need a job, age discrimination will be an issue for you.

Given that you are going to get old and you probably will not be rich, what you should wish for is a workplace that is as bias free as possible. A work place that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of gender, race or age. If you are a manager this should be one of your goals.