Letter: Facing the age of uncertainty
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Letter: Facing the age of uncertainty Sir: So Polly Toynbee is out of sympathy with the aims of the Employers' Forum on Age. Ageism is not, in her view, as pernicious as discrimination on the grounds of sex, race and disability. After all, persuading employers to retain older workers must affect the number of jobs for the young.
Indeed it must. As must employing women reduce the number of jobs for men, blacks the number of jobs for whites, and the disabled the number of jobs for non-disabled persons. All forms of discrimination are iniquitous and the only criterion for employing staff should be their ability to do the job.
I wonder how old Polly Toynbee is. If she really believes what she writes, then does she not feel it is perhaps time for her to retire to make way for a younger person? She has had her turn at being young, as she puts it, and "retirement is respectable and life is full of enjoyable and useful things to do outside the world of paid work."
Alan Stewart
Luton, Bedfordshire
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments