To the Editor,
Re: Seniors have skills available, Letters, Jan. 17.
The idea to get seniors back into the workforce and solve worker shortage is at best naïve. It ignores the reality that only a few would benefit economically or otherwise.
Work cannot be mistaken for a pleasure or fun. We pay to have any pleasures. We are paid to work.
If work is fun, the teenagers would hog it. Rich people would be working day and night.
Most work is annoying, tedious and boring. Work is necessary evil but generally there are other good reasons to get out of a force and retire ASAP. And stay put.
On average, retirees would cash less than two dozen CPP cheques when retiring at 65. As side effects of working 30-plus years, many are forced to hang like a barnacle to various health institutions.
Human beings should use a few odd years in trying to do the things they wanted all their lives. So why would any sane retiree go back to compete with younger generations for jobs?
When demands start driving wages up, the Chicken Little choirs start tweeting: “Work forces shortage is troubling”.
I beg to differ.
Skills shortages are favourable to those working or looking for a work. Demand for needed sets of skills historically converts in better paying jobs. Well-paying jobs motivate people to acquire those needed skills.
In the end, one well-paying job makes it possible to retire with a sufficient nest egg and enjoy retirement.
Z. Zvekic
Nanaimo