USEDCARSALESMAN

The Potential Flip Side of "Retiring" Retirement: Youth Enter the White-Collar Work Force

As long as Usedcarsalesman can remember, college-degreed adults in the U.S. have begun working at a specific point in time - namely their early 20s, or a few years later given any need for additional schooling. And, the age of 65 seemed to mark the end of the work-lives of those adults - 'Used' recollects numerous seniors who, at age 65, cashed out of retirement plans, left the workforce and began golfing and fishing like it was going out of style :).

Perhaps due to better health-care, diet and exercise regiments and other reasons, many Baby Boomers seem likely to buck the longstanding practice of ending there work-lives, at least entirely, at age 65. Some Boomers, in fact, seem inclined to work as long as they are able to in there current field, or otherwise embrace work in new fields that may be more amenable to advancing age or work in web-related businesses. As such, it appears that the U.S. workforce in 2020 may well be composed of a good number of 75-80 year old Baby Boomers who work, not just because they need money, but simply because they can still effectively do so.

Boomers might also keep working because it challenges ages of convention and shows how they have triumphed over socially imposed limits on there human potential. Some people might say that educated Boomers benefiting from better health care, etc. might serve as reason to allow the retirement age to be raise from 65 to 75 or 85, something like that; but, they might add, "Boomers would still 'retire,' just later on in there lives." This could very well be true. Perhaps Usedcarsalesman overestimates the number of Boomers who will attempt to work to the end of there lives for reasons of intellectual stimulation and continued engagement with the world of business and government. However, Used insists that, whether due to health care or work-from-home Internet technology, more working 80 year old will contribute to our economy in coming years versus any time in the past.

But, here's where Usedcarsalesman sees a potential, as-yet-unnoticed flip-side to Boomers disregarding the traditional 65-year-old retirement age: What if smart, young kids under 18, seeing all of these Boomer seniors disregarding the retirement cut-off, begin to chafe at socially (or legally) imposed age-entry barriers to work themselves? One of them, for example, might think, "if Grandma Webster has blown past 65, "retirement" age, and still works as an investment banker at 90, why can't I -- if I can demonstrate that I am capable -- do white-collar adult work that I am capable of doing even in my early teens?

Fellow bloggers might ask, what kid of work? Usedcarsalesman would say, "anything one could successfully test and train for on-line. Or, any business one could incorporate (likely in an adult's name) or operate as a sole proprietorship (again, likely registered in an adult's name)." Basically, the whole spectrum of white collar work - management, design, accounting/finance, legal or medical practice for the particularly committed and inclined to pass state-licensing exams,advertising, public relations, management consulting, technical service, publishing, news-reporting, media production, counseling. Heck, it might even displace traditional high-school-to-college-to-grad-school education for some youth. Furthermore, just as seniors who continue to capably work might offer the world the benefit of there vast experience, youth who work in white collar fields might offer breathtakingly original or creative solutions to problems.

Usdcarsalesman thinks that this strange new world of direct and indirect youth participation in the traditionally adult white-collar work force has already begun and will increase over the next 20-30 years and beyond (running in parallel with Baby Boomers who continue to work during traditional retirement years).

Note: Usedcarsalesman has often read that some of the success of Allied efforts during World War II apparently had to do with the fact that the Allies fully employed the adult population of U.S. men & women in the fight - whether at war or, state-side, in jobs that supported the war effort. The Axis Powers tended not to make full use of there populations in the war effort - the Axis lost. Since the above post is on the subject of seniors and youth in the white collar work force, one might ask, "will there be an instance in the 21st century information age, say in a war or otherwise, in which societies that make full use of there populations - say, seniors and youth - in a military conflict or in business, triumph over societies that do not?"

George Lucas Turns Movie-Making in to Dentistry?

When Usedcarsalesman was in the 8th grade, he did a book report for a social studies class at Junior High School in the DC metro area. The book in question was Skywalking, a George Lucas biography written by author, Dale Pollock. Given that the last of the first trio of "Star Wars" films had come out many years prior, Usedcarsalesman's peer audience was kind of wondering, understandably, "why is this kid talking about the guy who did those Star War's flicks, now?"  Reality, at that time, was that Usedcarsalesman seemed to be one of the few youngsters in the DC area with an interest in film and TV production - George Lucas was simply one of his heroes at the time, whether there was a Star Wars film out or not.

Well, here we are, years later, and 'Used' is in Hollywood and still pays attention to the activities of childhood heroes like George Lucas. Heck, in recent years, 'Used' has even acted as the lead in films and TV productions that he had auditioned for at the "Lucas" building on the grounds of the director's alma mater, The University of Southern California ("USC"). So, it was with some interest that Usedcarsalesman reviewed the news made by George Lucas, recently, regarding the purpose of his 175 million dollar gift to USC. At Wednesday's groundbreaking for a new Cinema Arts building, The "Star Wars" creator spoke, calling his gift a signal to the rest of academia that movies are "an important discipline and should be taken seriously." The Los Angeles Times said Lucas believes movie-making schools should be thought of on the same level as medical and law schools as well as schools of architecture and even journalism.

Hmm, Usedcarsalesman thinks, with all due respect, that Lucas may have a hang-up or two with academia's views on movie-making. Maybe, while at a Marin County cocktail-party, Lucas got the cold-shoulder from other rich-types who had contributed to the hard-science departments at Berkeley or Stanford ("...not some movie-making school!"). Maybe, the director's Mom always wanted him to be Chief of Surgery at Palms of Pasadena Hospital. Who knows?

But, speaking - rather presumptuously - for the younger folks in the entertainment industry, 'Used' doesn't think that he and they have any latent need for academia to consider "movie-making" an "important discipline" or on the same level as "medical, law or architecture schools." 'Used' thinks it's the architects, medical doctors and lawyers who should rightly have that elevated status in academia - to compensate for, perhaps, the constrained creativity necessitated by their highly-valued disciplines (or their need for state exam and license... God forbid, one ever needs a state license to make a movie!?)

For young movie-makers, if what they've made causes people to watch, that's more than good enough and evidence of the power of what they do. Furthermore, "bright kids"-are-"bright kids"-are-"bright kids" - young movie-makers won't benefit from academia according their schools the status of medical or architecture schools. It's not going to raise or lower movie-maker IQ's and it's not going to improve their product (If anything, there should probably be no movie-making schools, just guilds, apprenticeships etc).  And, the movie-making schools - in general, USC, UCLA, AFI - seem to exist only to bring some efficiency to learning Hollywood's "movie machine," [the system, people and tools] involved in making a quality film or TV product). Usedcarsalesman doesn't think these schools are looking to make any changes.

Nevertheless, Usedcarsalesman thinks that Lucas is alright donating big money to improve facilities at USC's School of Cinema and Television. And, the more money that he and others channel in that direction, the better. But, Lucas should avoid trying to wield a "tight grip" on academia's views about movie-making. Usedcarsalesman may be wrong, but he doesn't see the current or coming generations of movie-makers demanding any change in academic perception regarding their field.

Vegetarianism is Good (And May Get Even Better When You Use Blood and Saliva Tests To Monitor Your Health)

Usedcarsalesman is going on three of the last four years as a Vegetarian (he had a year-long lapse in 2005, but returned in 2006). Used didn't really start with Vegetarianism because he hated the idea of killing and eating chickens, bulls, pigs and other livestock. Actually, Used thought those chickens, bulls and pigs were rather tasty. And, Used didn't start with a vegetarian diet because it was better for the environment or something like that. Rather, Usedcarsalesan began a vegetarian diet for the following selfish and somewhat speculative reason: he believed that it would help to optimally maintain his long-term health.

Anyway, in his own case, Usedcarsalesman came up with some interesting findings related to his vegetarian diet. He'll now do a "pro-versus-con," CNET-style review like Vegetarianism was a new High Definition big screen TV.

Pros:

• Cholesterol plummets. Usedcarsalesman didn't have high-cholesterol to begin with (still, he did test at 142, down from a more typical 180s pre-veg cholesterol level test). But, if you an older person, have high cholesterol and the drugs aren't working and you are on your last legs and want to live, seriously consider Vegetarianism.
• Also, kidney function apparently improves -- kidney-function tests such as Blood Urea Nitrogen and Creatinine and Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) all improved remarkably in Usedcarsaleman. Used was concerned he might have been showing early stages of kidney disease prior to beginning Vegetarianism due to test results of the aforementioned that were borderline out-of-range. As a vegetarian, Used found these aforementioned tests numbers all stabilize to optimum "adult" levels.
• Also, Usedcarsalesman found that his hormonal levels were all maintained after becoming vegetarian; ie., there was no pronounced drop in Testosterone, DHEA, etc as demonstrated by blood chemistry tests "pre-veg" and "during-veg." (Note: Usedcarsalesan admits that his conclusions here regarding his cholesterol levels, kidney function, hormonal levels as they relate to a vegetarian diet are not "scientific;" so, reader beware!)

Cons:

• However, you're going to want to keep an eye on your Red Blood Cell Count and Your White Blood Cell Count if you are a Vegetarian. 'Used' found that his Red Blood Cell Count had fallen out of the control range since he had become a Vegetarian. Why? Likely, because there was no or minimal iron in his Vegetarian diet (no egg yolks, dark green vegetables, etc) or in his supplementation and, as such, his bone marrow didn't have the mineral it needed to produce new Red Blood Cells. Used adjusted his diet to include more iron-rich foods and supplemented with moderate amounts of iron; he, then, noticed a pronounced boost in energy, less fatigue, and greatly enhanced athleticism (keep in mind, red blood cells carry oxygen; if you're short on red blood cells, then you may experience shortness of breath during exercise, chronic fatigue at work, etc.)
• Also, Used's white blood cell count (WBC) was in range, but on the low end of the scale. Low WBC count may indicate slight malnutrition and inadequate amino acid intake due to inconsistent protein quality; ie., Used might not have been getting the full range of amino acids from his Vegetarian diet because the protein he consumed may have been somewhat incomplete (he was eating protein containing foods, say nuts, beans etc. but they were not adequately balanced enough with grains etc). And, though eggs and milk tended to provide more complete protein (especially eggs) who wanted to eat such foods all the time? Since, Used had been getting sick a lot, with head colds, influenza etc., he could reasonably speculate that his low WBC count might be a contributing factor and had allowed these infections to occur.

So Usedcarsalesman saw that he needed to stick with Vegetarianism, due its apparent benefits, but add a little iron and supplement with decent quality, full-amino acid spectrum, vegetarian protein. He decided to go with MetRx-styled complete protein shakes using a mix by Puritan's Pride. Needless to say, his incidence of sickness has declined remarkably since, just by having one of these shakes every few days. Used, of course, must test and confirm his presumed Red and White Blood Cell count increases in the future. But, regardless of existing data, Usedcarsalesman currently notices a very positive difference in his overall health after supplementing his Vegetarian Diet with iron and adding a complete protein shake (2 Times per Week) to his vegetarian menu.

Usedcarsalesman obtained the aforementioned blood chemistry information on himself through his HMO and the aid of willing Medical Doctors there. 'Used' also supplemented these tests with saliva-based tests (comparable to blood tests) from companies such as BodyBalance. HMO based blood chemistry tests are one thing (covered as part of you insurance premiums); but, paying out of pocket for saliva-based tests can get a bit expensive if you are taking them regularly. Nevertheless, if you are a strict Vegetarian like Usedcarsalesman (or the even more hardcore, "Vegan") good for you; But, 'Used' suggests to Vegans, and other Vegetarians like himself, that they seriously consider having regular blood chemistry and saliva-based tests done to shore up any dietary deficiencies and insure their optimal health.