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Keywords: Baby Boomers

  • AUSTRALIA

    Hope I die before I get (really) old

    • Brigitte Dwyer
    • 17 April 2015
    13 Comments

    Economists and politicians see productivity as our only hope for the future. We continually assess the productivity of people we meet, with the default question 'What do you do?' The worth of a person can be tied to their productivity, particularly that of older people. Those who advocate legal euthanasia can find it hard to accept that an unproductive life might be worth living.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Petrol price plunge won’t arrest car decline

    • Greg Foyster
    • 06 February 2015
    3 Comments

    After years of writing pain-at-the-pump puns, journalists are giddy at the prospect of prices heading south for once. The low price is a boon for motorists and regional tourism operators. But it won't change the face that we've hit 'peak car' and are driving less. Young people now prize access over ownership.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Who wants to be a capitalist?

    • Moira Rayner
    • 31 October 2014
    11 Comments

    Affordable housing ought to be a hot election issue. Sadly it’s not a government priority, with ordinary people being taught to be entitled to look to capital growth in bricks and mortar as the best path to financial security. That is producing a housing price bubble and public housing is being squeezed. As a result, an increasing number of Australians can’t afford to put a roof over their head.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rise of the corporate cowboys

    • Tony Smith
    • 29 September 2014
    7 Comments

    Unfortunately, when people pin their hopes for a just and fair society to a corporation, they can be sadly disappointed. A spate of deaths around the country suggests that many corporations have plenty of power to influence governments to produce policies and legislation convenient for their operations, but fail to take responsibility for their bad outcomes, which include deaths in workplaces.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Life and death issues the election campaign missed

    • David James
    • 06 September 2013
    4 Comments

    Two of the most important issues to have been given scant attention in the election campaign are ageing and property. Even less noticed is the inter-relationship between the two. The effect of ageing on property prices will be arguably the most important financial challenge facing Australian governments over the coming decades.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ageism in the jobs market

    • Malcolm King
    • 16 July 2012
    7 Comments

    Go to seek.com.au and enter the keywords 'Dynamic, Young, Funky'. You will have before you about 24 job ads. Exclude the word 'Funky' and it rises to 300-400. Ads should focus on the skills, competencies and capabilities of the position rather than the applicant's age. 

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  • EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

    Migrant myths and memories

    • Julie McNeill
    • 24 August 2011
    4 Comments

    Sociologist Eva Cox heard all the vitriol about boat people when, as a five-year-old Jewish girl, she fled Nazi Germany and headed to Australia. My nine-year-old mother was a different kind of boat arrival: one of 135,000 'child migrants' imported under the 'Populate or Perish' policy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Elders' wisdom could save us

    • Michael Mullins
    • 08 August 2011
    10 Comments

    We could be facing a new GFC because many decisions on the financial markets are made by financial traders in their 20s who are uninterested in learning from past experiences. Youth may be the future, but there will be no future without the wisdom of our elders.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The future shock of aged care

    • Martin Laverty
    • 07 February 2011
    8 Comments

    One of our most daunting challenges is how to look after the baby boomers, who are fast approaching old age. The cost of aged care, and the number needing it, is skyrocketing. Funding has not been committed, and there's a train wreck in sight. Doing nothing is not an option. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Granny chic is fashionable exploitation

    • Jen Vuk
    • 16 June 2010
    11 Comments

    As a child of migrant parents, I was taught to respect my elders, to view each wrinkle as the mark of wisdom and a full head of silvery hair as the ultimate badge of honour. I wonder how those in their twilight years feel about young celebrities dying their hair grey in the name of fashion?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why 'welcome to country' is more than formality

    • Tony Smith
    • 31 March 2010
    9 Comments

    Christian prayer at public meetings cannot have the same importance as an acknowledgement of country. Indigenous peoples have a genuine spiritual association with the land. By recognising this, all Australians can be united in a non-denominational spirituality.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Walking with Port Kembla's ghosts

    • Eleanor Massey
    • 18 May 2009
    9 Comments

    In 1962, Port Kembla was stoked with the dispossessed of the Old World, pouring steel back into the reconstruction of their war-ravaged homelands. Now, it's a ghost town. They're putting together an industrial museum, and that has an ominous ring to it.

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