Adventure Ausrama Blog

With the federal government intending to lift the retirement age because of a shortfall in tax collections, businesses will have to adapt to a new employment environment. The reason given for the policy is claimed to be that the proportion of young taxpayers to middle-aged workers is declining. Of course, this a furphy. There is a shortfall now and the disparity in age sectors is a long term issue. Government will have to subsidize the employment of aged people. Even if the government denies it, this will be necessary. Conditions of employment will have cater for the inability to perform at a high physical level. This is an area where the elderly will not be able to compete. The young will have to vacate their comfortable seats for those much older. This is obvious. The young can learn from those with a lifetime of work experience, but what can these people learn from the young? Businesses should know that these groups will remain different and will have to treat them ac...

Australian immigration is not a level playing field. If you have money you go to the head of the queue. This has been known for years but seldom mentioned. As we all know, the free market solves all of the world's problems - what a load of cobblers this belief is. Such a large proportion of world wealth has never been in fewer hands. Foreign tiler in Australia - no shortage of local tilers! The idea that people from other countries are allowed in due to a skill shortage is also rubbish. Foreign workers are sponsored by abusive companies who give them jobs that Australians once did and underpay the slave labor. A case in point is tilers in Sydney. People who cannot speak English work more that 60 hours a week for a pittance while Australian tilers now unemployed picket in the street. Over 100,000 new "skilled" workers are allowed in each year. Most of them duplicate Australian labor readily available. "Get a job", the government says when i...

There is a lot of talk about the percentage of elderly people in the population increasing as time goes on. It seems rational to suggest that they should stay in the workforce. Unless there is legislation to force young Australians out of the "desk" jobs and into manual labor, this will not happen. As one gets older the body lets you down. You no longer have the stamina to keep going, on a production line for example. Persistent pain that you have to live with is also a problem. Chronic illness can only be treated, not cured. Where do you draw the line between keeping someone at work who is clearly sick or sending them home? When an elderly person says, "I can't do that anymore", maybe they can't. If you are young good health is taken for granted. You heal quickly and continue to enjoy life. For many, to be old is to be sick. Medical specialists do refuse treatment to the elderly because it is seen as a waste of money, notwithstanding th...

Western countries are heading for a crisis. Young people are not being taught skills that are of use in the workforce. Australia under Prime Minister Tony Abbott is moving back to the three "Rs" - reading, writing and arithmetic in schools. However, it will take at least a decade for this to take effect. It looks unlikely that future Australian governments will keep this change going. More and more irrelevant subjects are being introduced into an already crowded curriculum. Students are studying different things. There is no uniformity in education. Will we reach a stage where machines run the world and there are no technicians with the skills to repair them? This is a strong possibility. It is just a short step back to primitivism, back to the stone age. Students are not applying to enter the scientific field. Scientists are an aging bunch. Much research funding is channelled to them because they have proven themselves. Bodies with funds do not have any faith i...

It is a pipe dream to raise the pension eligibility age and expect the elderly to go back to work. With thousands of young able bodied young people unemployed what kind of work are older people going to do? Employers will not have older workers unless there is some sort of financial benefit. It makes no sense to give this with all the youngsters looking for work. Furthermore, making the unemployed wait six months to get any money at all is absolutely irrational. How are they going to get food to eat? The crime rate will rapidly increase. We will be back to the days of being imprisoned for stealing an apple. Many of the young would like to see the accumulated assets of the elderly confiscated and given to them in benefits. Little goodwill is left in society. The old, worked 12 hour days, seven days a week in hard physical labor to gain their assets. The young today will only lift things under a certain weight. They use lifting machines to move heavy things around. ...

It is not work in general that is causing a decline in women giving birth at a young age. It is specifically temporary jobs that are responsible. In Australia part-time and casual employment has boomed over the last decade as employers see it as a way to keep costs down. Many work extra hours for no money at all, afraid of losing their jobs. Women working full time can afford to pay for child care, or at least for critical periods when they are working. Such career women are having children before they reach the age of 35 years. There is a myth out there that it is these career women who are starting families at an older age. Oddly the effects of not working full time changes the behavior of women in the high socieconomic group as well. They may be able to afford childcare from a financial "nest egg", but it is the state of mind about not working enough and not having sufficient income for a family. Financial security in regard to income is essential for women ...

Despite the boom times in Australia which has finally peaked, a significant proportion of working Australians do not have permanent full-time positions. This is because both sides of politics have freed-up the hiring contract between employers and employees. The claim that bank holiday and annual leave pay is included in the casual rate is rubbish. People are hired for a per hour fee. No moneys are set aside for rest day payment.  Part-time employees can be called in to work at any time of the day or night. Even in management the market is distorted. Tests to find the "ideal" personality to do the job have never been tested in the real world. They have been written by university people who teach and must write a certain number of papers for "respected" journals. Governments are reducing employment in the public sector. When they have to get the work done in future by the private sector the real cost will become apparent.  While contractors offering specific...

For many years it has been said that Australia lacks maths and science graduates. Maths teachers are in short supply we are told. Professor Ian Chubb, a chief scientist, certainly pushes this case. Unfortunately, data does not support this premise. Like qualified information technology people, maths and science graduates find the job market difficult. It seems there is real demand only in geological science. A little more than half of graduates say their qualifications are relevant to their work. They hold down jobs only in distantly related fields. One would think that with science and technology moving forward at a rapid pace such qualified people would be sorely needed. Employment in agricultural science is falling because young people are leaving rural towns and refuse to learn about farming. It is seen as glorified laboring. Getting a post-graduate qualification does not help to find work. Employers see higher degrees as narrowing educational scope. Government is cont...

The Internet is putting more people out of work and this is only the beginning. As more advanced algorithms are being developed established jobs are under threat. It will not only be lawyers and professional photographers employed by newspapers who get the chop. Unless you are in work that involves human problem solving like plumbers, mechanics and vehicle body repairers your job will face "extinction". Most of the burden will fall on older workers. Retail, for example, only wants teenagers who can be paid a pittance while "training". Open discrimination occurs against people over 45. They are simply not wanted. This barrier age has fallen in recent years. Computerized job selection processes cuts them off at the beginning. Their resumes are not even looked at. If they go personally to apply for a position they face insulting comments and bad jokes. Employers are no longer afraid of telling them directly that they are too old. Many have simply given up ...

Developed country are heading toward a crisis of not enough people to do the work. Baby boomers have reached retirement age and with such a large section of society no longer contributing there will be fewer taxpayers to fund economies. Government revenues will fall. Workers can only pay so much tax. Beyond a certain level incentive to work decreases. Despite the problem, employers still persist in seeking young employees when there are plenty of elderly people who can hold down jobs. Old legislation covering those in public service force retirement on perfectly capable workers. Some Australian states are planning to change this. The private sector has no restrictions. Many doctors, for example, work into their 80s. This is because they are self-employed, so they can decided when to stop. Fewer retirees are offering their service free in voluntary work. This means their lives just slow down and they spend their time doing very little. Their lives would be more interesting ...

With workplace participation by those with disabilities being a prime goal touted by government there is no solid progress. Words are cheap and politicians know it. Funding is just not there. Businesses must make a profit to survive in a competitive world and they will not take the disabled on without subsidies. This is a fact. Those with disabilities are even shunned by the public at large. They face discrimination every day. They feel that government ignores them as must as businesses. Ninety four per cent of disabled people said this in a recent survey. Besides having a job, they want support in basic social contact. Many do not have a circle of friends. When they are with a carer, bank staff, for example, talk to the carer without speaking to the person cared for. The disabled are ignored as being "non-people". Wheelchair access has not been improved for years. Public transport is out of the question for many. Parts of the city are never visited by the disa...

It seems women are changing to fit into the new technical society.  Men, on the other had, see traditional values fall away and struggle for an identity.  The old 40 hour week is gone for ever.  Men in particular are working more hours, up to 65 hours a week.  They feel that they are always on call to go back to work.  There is nowhere to hide.  Mobile phones have moved the "work/finished-work" barrier right into the home.  Despite more women in the workforce, men feel that they have to work to leave women free to look after children. Men and women are living separate lives.  They are not communicating.  Even though couples share the same bed, men feel that they are left out and on their own.  They want to have quality time with the children.  With the mobile always ringing they don't get the chance. Mothers are so tied up with their children that they won't even consider taking a part-time job to free up more of their part...

Despite discrimination by some employers, older Australians are determined to keep on working past the retirement age. They believe that they haven't got enough saved to retire on. A large survey discovered that 2.6 million Australians over 45 are working full-time and 653,000 said they would never give up work. Another 399,300 said they could see no time when they would be able to retire. A significant 1.6 million were in part-time employment. Even though superannuation has been compulsory in Australia since 1986 a quarter of the 3.9 million in the study said they would rely fully on the state for a pension. Only half would have sufficient superannuation to live on. Compulsory superannuation will reduce the present number of 66 per cent of elderly people on the aged pension. But people being what they are, many superannuants intend to go on world tours or travel around Australia to quickly get rid of their capital so they become eligible for the old age pension. http://www.ad...

There is not much doubt that work is bad for you. Yes, it gets you up in the morning and you have to go through all the rituals of getting to work, but that is about it. You would probably feel better and be healthier if you could take a pleasant walk along the beach, then sit down for a cool drink. However, one must make a living. What good is money to you? Well, it gives you the power to make others work for you! Manual work is doubly hard on any person. You have the worry of receiving a low wage and the body must suffer continuing hardship. Even having a "comfy" job in an office, sitting down lazing in a chair most of the time, the stress can be immeasurable. With a physical job one has the problems of getting a permanent bad back, for example, and office employment has the dangers of obesity and heart disease. Work is a fact of life. It makes the world go round. As the saying goes: Egypt made the pyramids, but the pyramids made Egypt. http://www.adventure--australia.blogs...

It is no wonder China is experiencing a rise in mental illness: production line work is the most demoralizing you can do. Oddly, it is the executives in China's industry who are committing suicide. This could be due to party officials being "given" jobs running large modern businesses, Party work is much different than running a company. Mental illness is shockingly high in China with 17.5 per cent of the population suffering from the malady. The issue is - Why has the rate risen so quickly in China? Of course, a little thought will inform: the largest nation in the world has adopted the Western economic system rapidly. The system was just "dumped" on the people who were told the old ways were bad. The old ways provided guaranteed employment and generous pensions, even housing was a given. My, how things have changed. The Western "disease", the industrial strike, has occurred in recent times. In the past this state of affairs would have been "stom...