If industry and commerce — and, of course, politicians — woke up to the fact that there are at least 1m people in the UK between the ages of 50 and 65 who wish to work but are unable to find appropriate employment, there would be less need to encourage unfettered immigration.
In January 2005, in a meeting at the Wharton Business School, co-sponsored by the American Association of Retired People (AARP) and the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research in America, the issue of the demographic time bomb was discussed at length.
According to speakers, this represented an enormous opportunity to business in the US and it was time that the notion of a fixed retirement age was readjusted and that companies realised the potential of older workers.
It was suggested that companies should learn to appreciate the knowledge and skills of older workers and train and retrain them so they could make better use of their skills and knowledge — especially since we now live in a knowledge-based economy where experience counts more than brawn.
The chief executive of AARP, William Novelli, said: “We should promote the idea to employers that turning away older workers is a waste of human capital.
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“We will gain ground as employers realise that discrimination is wrong, not just for legal or moral reasons, but for business reasons as well.”
If America woke up to the fact of the demographic time bomb nearly two years ago, why is it still taking so long for the British government and business leaders to “wake up and smell the coffee”?
Kenneth Armitage
Kesgrave, Suffolk
Not so Smart: Ray Hutton, in his article “Company doctor’s cure for Smart cars” (Business news, last week), shows how short-sighted our Welsh assembly and its advisers are.
A lot of people in the European motor industry reckon that the loss-making Smart, owned by Daimler Chrysler, was a pretty dumb investment. I have heard of no other buyers for the Smart Roadster — only Project Kimber, the consortium that failed to buy the salvage of MG Rover last year.
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Not so long ago, Wales invested heavily in LG Electronics, to name just one project, and this took us down the failure road. Project Kimber is following the same path in obtaining £10m from the Welsh assembly.
The Smart AC car, or call it what you like, is not needed — we have too many buyers looking for too many cars as it is. In any case, producing 8,000 cars a year is not viable and I cannot see this investment by the Welsh assembly turning into a success story for the people of the principality.
Cymru am Byth (Wales for ever) but not to feed the German economy.
David Gravell
Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire