Ageism sees 820,000 treated as 2nd-class citizens (Scotland)

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http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/institutional_ageism_sees_820_000_treated_as_second_class_citizens_1_2060800

I'm not an over-50, but this is something I hate.

I'll be fifty this year, and this kind of thing really doesn't bother me at all. If a business doesn't want my money, I take it where it is appreciated. Smart business people--the kind I prefer to trade with--understand that all money is green (or whatever color the pound is these days).

There are too many people out there who do want my business to be concerned for two seconds about those who don't.

I've been discriminated against as an aspie in ways ethnic minorities can't begin to comprehend. It's a matter of ignoring it and moving on. I refuse to give bigots free rent in my head.

I have absolutely no problem with differential treatment in insurance based on age.

An insurer is perfectly capable of quantifying risk, and determining at what point it is no longer willing to accept responsibility for underwriting that risk. I turn 45 this year. My term life insurance premiums go up this year, a fact that I was perfectly well aware would happen when I started the policy 11 years ago. I am also perfectly well of the ongoing premium increases as I cross the next threshholds, and my eventual uninsurability. That's not ageist, it's acknowledging a basic fact of life.

I have no problem with dissuading a person from buying a product or service from which they cannot fully benefit. But the decision is ultimately theirs to make.

But there is no excuse for rudeness, or a refusal to serve that is not grounded in fact.

The companies that practice that are in risk of blow back. While they are turning away and misleading customers, they could wind up alienating themselves as well. Sounds like there's room for companies that cater to the older portion of the population to start up.

I suppose they want their free bus passes to be discontinued as this is discriminatory.

Some businesses choose to give discounts to older people, should this be made illegal?

Working in retail this issue might not be as easy as it seems.

Yes, no bank or company should offer or sale a product that duplicates or the person is not qualified for. At the same time, sometimes these older people do not read or understand what they are agreeing to but they do not want to say things or admit they aren't as "quick/smart" as they use to be.

However, at the same time I have delt with elderly people that I didn't think have the mental capabilities to make the decissions they were. I have felt like s**t to sell $20,000 worth of services to a person because they cannot understand they really only need $2000 worth of services.

My grandfather was discriminated because the car dealship in his small town refuse to sell him a car. He had totalled 4 or 5 at this piont and thankfully nobody was killed or seriously hurt.