Economic Consequences of Ageism on the Elderly and the American Research Paper

Economic Consequences of Ageism on the Elderly and the American Healthcare System - Research Paper Example From this paper it is clear that old persons have less employment opportunities and have a lower pay scale as compared to younger employees. The 1967 Equal Employment opportunity Commission provides protection to job applicants and employees from discrimination on the basis of mature age. Aged Americas are an important part of society and can still contribute towards nation building.This report highlights that  the word â€Å"ageism† was coined in 1968 by Robert Butler. The media accepted the term and later it found its way into The Oxford English Dictionary. Ageism has been reported by many old persons and is widely present in the country’s establishment resulting in bigotry in the media, workplace, healthcare and language. For instance, presence of discrimination in case of appointing older persons,   absence of health care in health care institutions, the use of abusive language and the negative portrayal of old persons in cartoons showing them as ugly, cantanker ous and dirty. Negative feelings about a certain group can be called as the negative attitudes. Sickness, impotency, health decline, mental illness, poverty, gloominess, isolation, unattractiveness and futility are the major nine stereotypes depicting bias against elders.A major discrimination against elders is made on the basis of illness faced by majority of their population.  About half of the American population believes that poor health is a grave trouble faced by majority of people over 65.... Negative feelings about a certain group can be called as the negative attitudes. Sickness, impotency, health decline, mental illness, poverty, gloominess, isolation, unattractiveness and futility are the major nine stereotypes depicting bias against elders. A major discrimination against elders is made on the basis of illness faced by majority of their population. About half of the American population believes that poor health is a grave trouble faced by majority of people over 65. However, the fact is that most of the elderly people which constitute more than 85 percent of the elderly population take on strong activities of daily life like ingestion, bathing, etc. Only about 5 percent of these elderly persons are hospitalized. Another stereotype is that older persons have no desire for sexual activity and those who spend ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF AGEISM ON THE ELDERLY AND THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM time in such action can be called as ethically nasty or at the slightest peculiar . The truth is that persons crossing the age of 65 have concern and capability for sexual relationships. They have freedom from alarm of pregnancy, job stress and childbearing errands, free time and more grown-up relations. Ugliness of old people is another common stereotype. Beauty is associated with youth and women particularly fear the loss of their beauty as a result of aging. In contrast to our culture, some cultures like those of the Japanese tend to associate wrinkles and gray hair with insight, development and long term service. Palmore (1999) states that it is thought that age increase from middle age is associated with a decline in ability to learn and remember. But most aged adults tend to keep hold of learning abilities. Illness, lack of education, style of learning,