Age Discrimination Essay Research Paper Age discrimination

Age Discrimination Essay, Research Paper Age discrimination is one of the worst types of discriminations next to that of racial or ethnic discrimination. A person s age should never be a factor in how they are treated. Once we reach the age where we can make logical conscious decisions on our own, we should be treated like everybody else. Age discrimination is predominant because the majority of this world s inhabitants have unfair and old-fashion ideas or beliefs with respect to two age groups in particular. These two groups that are discriminated against the most are the young and old. Once a person reaches the age of eighteen in America they are given the privilege of voting. Unfortunately, at the same time they are robbed of certain rights. I have always disagreed with

the law in which adults under the age of 21 cannot purchase or consume alcohol legally. This law seems completely contradictory to me; I don t understand how our government can give us the right to choose our leaders or be sent off to war and given a machine gun and told to kill the enemy but deny us the right to legally buy a case of beer. This just does not make sense. This is only one example of how the youth of America are discriminated against based on their age. Another predominant example is with respect to wages. People under the age of 21 usually get paid less than older people for doing the same job. This is a major problem in today s workplace. In order to correct this problem we need to focus our attention on paying people s wages based on their skill and performance

of their duties. If a 16 and a 43-year old both have the same skills doing the same job they should be paid the same. Some people argue that older people should be paid more than youths because they have more financial duties and responsibilities than younger people. In order to make a high amount of money you need to posses certain skills and attributes that not many other people have. This is the reason why such fields as car mechanics, lawyers, and doctors make the amount of money that they do. These people are rewarded on the amount of education that was needed to obtain their skills. Everybody has the opportunity to do whatever they want in life no matter what their personal and family circumstances are. Everything in this world is possible as long as you accept the

challenge of obtaining it and work hard at achieving it. Many people will hide behind the excuse that they never had any opportunities growing up. This is an utter lie, for what could possibly prevent you from creating your own opportunities? The answer to this is nothing. There are, however, some instances where a person s age must be a factor in their employment. One of these acceptable times would pertain to actor that must meet an age requirement for the authenticity of a dramatic part. Another example would be that people under the age of 18 are not allowed to operate dangerous machinery for their safety and the safety of other around them. These are just two examples of different instances where it is completely acceptable for one s age to come into factor. The second group

of people that are heavily discriminated against just because of their age are people over the age of fifty. For some reason people believe that once you get older you start to loose your skills and positive attributes. As a result of this primitive thinking, many older people receive a far lower wage for the same job a twenty-five year old does. This is an issue that really needs to be addressed in today s society. Another way older people are discriminated against in terms of employment is that in far too many instances, if an older person and a younger person are applying for the same job it will often go to the younger person. This is a result of employers thinking that younger people are more capable of being productive at whatever they are employed to do than their older