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The New Old Ag

游客2024-01-23  9
问题                                                                   The New Old Age
A)       The Japanese senior citizens who founded Jeeba knew they were making history when they coined their company motto: "Of the elderly, by the elderly and for the elderly." By the time the 25 founders met one another in the mid-1990s, at a series of business-networking events hosted by the government of southern Saga prefecture (县), many companies were making products for the elderly, the fastest-growing demographic (人口统计数据的) market in Japan. But those goods were not made by the elderly.
B)       All the Jeeba founders were older than 60 and believed they had a special insight into the needs of older consumers. In 1997, they launched Jeeba (the name means "old man and old woman") to build senior-friendly bathtubs, toilets and hammock lifts to help the infirm into wheelchairs. They do not hire young people, and the oldest of their workers is 75.
C)       Firms run by senior citizens are still a rarity, in Japan and worldwide. But the elderly have numbers on their side. Thanks to the post World War II baby boom, healthier and longer-living seniors are reaching retirement age in unprecedented numbers all over the developed world. Rock-bottom birthrates in those same countries mean there are far fewer young workers to take their place. The potential consequences for industrialized economies are now clear: shrinking workforce, soaring health costs and collapsing pension systems.
D)       As a result, many of the rich world’s notions about old age are dying. While the streamlining effects of international competition are focusing attention on the need to create and keep good jobs, those fears will eventually give way to worries about the growing shortage of young workers. One unavoidable solution; putting older people back to work, whether they like it or not. Indeed, cutting-edge European economies like those of Finland and Denmark have already raised their retirement ages, reversing the postwar trend toward ever-earlier retirement.
E)       This erosion of one of the cornerstones of the good life—relaxed golden years—has not gone unremarked. In the last year Belgium, Italy and France have all been hit with massive protests against pension reforms that would, among other things, have raised the retirement age. In Germany, political resistance has forced the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to go slow on efforts to raise the official retirement age from 65 to 67; the plan now is to increase it by one month a year between 2008 and 2032.
F)       Alas, the global labor market won’t wait for politicians or protesters to come around. The aging of the workforce and the accompanying skills shortage are high on the list of challenges facing the global business. Many firms are already preparing for the demographic shift. In Japan where the number of people between 15 and 64 is expected to decline by an average of 740,000 a year for the next decade, big-name corporations like Canon and Mitsubishi have already started rehiring their own retirees, as the pool of young job applicants shrinks.
G)       As the world’s most rapidly aging society, Japan is an extreme case. But the trends are the same all over the developed world. Personnel services like Swiss-based Adecco have introduced "demographic fitness tests" for their clients to help them judge whether they have the tools in place to attract and productively employ qualified older workers. "Ageism in the workplace is a danger to corporate productivity," warns Adecco, which recommends replacing sudden retirement with a flexible system allowing workers to work part time into their late 60s or beyond.
H)       Whether these changes are good or bad news to workers depends on whether they anticipate retirement with eagerness or dread. In the United States, a full third of recently retired seniors now go on to pursue a second career, according to a new study by Putnam Investments. In Japan, 78 percent of baby boomers between the ages of 55 and 59 say they plan to work beyond the official retirement age of 60.
I)       These trends are forcing rich nations to rethink the long-held assumption that early retirement is a competitive advantage. Older workers were (and often still are) seen as less productive and more expensive, and thus ripe targets for corporations seeking to pare costs. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) labor-market-economist Mark Keese says governments from Germany to Ireland have long subsidized early retirement in order to free up jobs for the young, by offering generous benefits at very early retirement ages. As a result, the average retirement age in rich nations has been falling steadily from as high as 69 in 1950 to 61 or lower in many OECD nations today.
J)       On the other hand, in many countries, well-meaning laws designed to protect older workers—such as special prohibitions on firing, or age-based mandatory severance payments (强制遣散费)—have had the opposite effect, making companies reluctant to hire them in the first place. That’s one reason that in Italy, two in five employment ads state bluntly that anyone 45 or older need not apply.
K)       Contrary to still widespread stereotypes, there is very little hard evidence to suggest that companies cannot stay competitive with a rising-share of older workers. When Danish retailer Netto set up three "oldie" supermarkets where at least half of the staff is over 50, absenteeism went down and customer satisfaction up. The same thing happened at British hardware chain B&Q, whose "elder worker" stores in Manchester and Exmouth were 18 percent more profitable than its regular outlets—due in part, the Company says, to six times less employee turnover (人事变动率) and 60 percent less theft and breakage.
L)       To get around one of the main drawbacks of pay systems that often award workers based on seniority more than performance, some companies are introducing "peak wage" contracts that gradually reduce pay past the age of 55 or 60, often combined with fewer working hours. That kind of flexibility is becoming increasingly popular in Japan. Starting in April, all employees who wish to work past retirement can be rehired after 60 at more-flexible hours and pay, and often in a different job.
M)       The surprising news to many younger workers dreaming of a life beyond the rat race is that most seniors are happy to be working. In America, two thirds of the "working retired" say they return to the job because they want to, not because they have to. "When we find them a job, they really blossom and are more likely to stay healthy and motivated," says Bert Rechter, the 73-year-old headhunter at Oudstanding, an Amsterdam-based temporary-employment agency specializing in seniors. His oldest client; an 80-year-old delivery "boy". [br] The average retirement age has been decreasing for decades in wealthy countries.
选项
答案 I
解析 同义转述题。定位句指出，富有的国家的平均退休年龄已经从1950年的高达69岁稳步下降至今天的61岁，许多经合组织国家的平均退休年龄还要更小。由此可见，几十年来，富有的国家的平均退休年龄一直在下降，故答案为I。
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