Storms in teacups or telling it like it is?

What a week for age-related stereotypes as both over retirement-focused older workers and less than frugal frustrated wannabe home owners got to share their  outrage.

Maybe some older workers are keener on getting their hands on their super than attending the latest software iteration training with their ‘team’.

And perhaps some younger people prefer to indulge in top-end café breakfasts every weekend than saving for their first unit by eating baked beans at home.

The real issue is how many of their age group do these  ‘some’ actually represent and are they the same ones complaining about age-discrimination and high house prices?

As with every so-called social media storm there was probably a skerrick of truth in both charges which was why they resonated so widely.

First off the well-paid boss of Australia Post Ahmed Fahour remarked to a Senate committee how almost half of his workforce were aged more than fifty.

His observation was ‘some of those’ were thinking less about developing new skills to keep them employed than in keeping their lives simple until retirement.

Then consider the brewing storm about the amount Millennials, that is who attained adulthood circa the year 2000, were routinely spending on their breakfasts.

Demographer Bernard Salt, a keen observer of the balance of power between the generations, stirred the possum for daring to suggest younger Australians might splash out less on eat-out food and more on home deposits.

His tart example, claiming  the very people who complain about housing affordability are paying $22 for ‘smashed avocado and feta on toast’ without blinking,  stirred up a fresh intergenerational bunfight.

Thank goodness for controversies as they keep newspaper columnists  in business and cause us to consider afresh our perhaps faulty preconceptions.

Take the older workers’ issue the former Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan said Fahour was perpetuating damaging stereotypes as over-50s needed to keep their skills polished to stay in work due to discrimination.

Wisely she observed Australia Post might improve their strategies for re-training older workers and said not many 50s would be so focused on their retirement as the pension eligibility age goes up to 67 next year.

For their part Australia Post claim they are ‘passionate about diversity in the workplace’ and the boss’ words were taken out of context. Very reassuring.

Back to breakfast and Bernard must love rubbing salt into the wound as the debate fired up about the fruitlessness of saving a few bucks on avos when house prices were shooting up like avocados last summer.

He’s set up a ‘sect’ called Middle-Aged Moralisers to further fan the flames around what is actually less an argument about affordability than about the benefits of frugality.

Both issues are those on which no doubt FiftyUp members would have informed and inflammatory views. Keep them coming