Exclusion of the elderly from society

[Curly]

I am writing an essay on why society excludes/rejects the elderly in our day and age.

So far I am going to write about:

Our society is a very "youth based" one, as people age they lose the youthful look that everyone wants, thus excluding them.

They are viewed as sickly, weak and basically useless by many people, especially past a certain age.

I just came up with this quickly, any ideas or expansions on my current ideas and new ideas would be great.

[FF45T1Z]

It has nothing to do with 'youthful look'. Our society is created entirely around spending power.
The spending power of youth chasing an image is largely the main diet of our modern day capitalism.
The elderly are theoretically less fickle, combined with being largely established in life, and UNDERLINED by their DIMINISHED EARNING POWER.
For these reasons they become less useful to the 'bricks and mortar' that make up society.
Old people are worth less money, they aren't susceptible to the fads of marketing and they tend to have more concreted and established values entrenched by living.
The elderly are just not worth as much money as the youth.
If you look back to the 1940s-50s you'd notice that the bulk of marketing was not tailored towards the youth, but tailored towards the middle aged, who had a decent enough earning power to chase 'the American dream', and want to live accordingly. Youth were expected to adhere to the whims of the more conservative elders.
Since then though, we've seen the paradigm shift towards a youth centric marketing strategy. Which becomes very lucrative when you realize how fickle and stupid most of my generation is, and especially the ones after it.
The youth have no convictions, and are easily led around in circles.
Old people might have more money, but are less likely to spend it excessively on frivolous things.
And thus, they become useless to 'society'.

[Chimro]

Great post FF45.... whatever your name is.

[Parallax]

I think a lot of old people exclude themselves from society just because they are so fucking annoying and stupid.

(I live in Florida)

[0ttre]

Originally Posted by Parallax

I think a lot of old people exclude themselves from society just because they are so fucking annoying and stupid.

(I live in Florida)

I think a lot of people find God before they pass on.

[ChickenOfDoom]

Because people tend to hang out almost exclusively with people of their own age group (barring family) because of cultural differences and separation by societal institutions (younger people have school, certain jobs require a certain amount of experience, etc.).

Old people die more, so there are fewer of them, and thus they have fewer potential friends.

Simple.

Also you should probably be more specific than 'society'.

[Curly]

Anyone else?

[keybear]

Well i don't think society excludes/rejects the elderly at all. I think it can be quite the other way around. The elderly rejecting this society and not participating in much. Shutting themselves up in their houses and keeping to themselves.

I see old people who go to diners, ballroom dancing, tea parties, fancy dinners at restaurants, libraries, theatres and out in the parks walking their pets.

Then you have the old people who are always miserable and grumpy and lock themselves away in their homes, whilst watching television all day with the heating on full blast. Who choose not to answer the phone, the door or visit anybody.

[crazy maniac]

all i know is theres a bunch of old guys that work full time in the produce department at the supermarket i work at (produce kr3w repprezzzzent t(-_-t) )

[SlapinFoFun]

Originally Posted by Curly

Anyone else?

If you want to make it real fast and easy, dip back into history to see how other cultures like the ancient Chinese, Greeks, and Egyptians treated their elderly. It'd be (barely) interesting to see how our modern American culture treats our elderly compared to them. Simple compare and contrast. That could easily take up 7-8 pages and give off enough sense of depth to snag an A.