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When I asked my four year old daughter this question she said that "old people could do the pots, watch telly and read the papers", which sounded quite good for a start. When I pressed her for more ideas she said that she was "watching that big spider on the ceiling", so that was the limit of her help on the matter, and the spider wasn't even that big.

Really the issue arises as to how you read the question, as to how you answer it. If like the British government you wish to make the older generation work until the age of 75 until they are then allowed to retire, then this form of "contribution" will get no support from me.

Forcing the older generation to work in this manner is nothing more than a total disgrace, an insult to their dignity, a vision of the Orwellian nightmare. Any other schemes to involve the older generation into the labour market against their wishes should be rejected immediately.

If on the other hand you define "contribution" as involving the older generation into our community in a more social context, then I totally agree I am all in. Too many good people are living without much contact, alone and feeling neglected, this is simply no way to treat our aging relatives. In the past older family members would be supported by their family but in our rushed, hectic way of life it is the older ones that are being left behind.

The elderly generation are a huge source of knowledge not only have they lived through a very diverse century complete with vast social and political changes, but in the first hand contact of their parents and grandparents they possess real knowledge reaching back more than 150 years.

This fountain of information can surely be incorporated into the educational system it seems such a waste for such voices to go unheard. I recognise the value having attended many seminars in which the elderly generation have contributed to my personal learning. I have been surprised by the things I have learnt from them as they recount events in which I was in total ignorance of. It is in times like these when you fully appreciate the wealth of opportunities that are dripping away. They should be allowed to speak in schools, we could all learn from them then.

Shockingly, respect for our elder relatives seems to be falling. In the past people had the dignity to allow them first place in queues or they were offered a seat on the bus, sadly it now seems on the whole, a thing of the past. It is time that we started to bring these little common curtseys back. They deserve more respect.

I feel that the elderly generation are being let down by a lot of people, none more so than our caring politician's who view them as nothing more than a drain on the system. Surely they realise that without the older generations work and support, especially through the war years, we all wouldn't possess the freedom in which we now enjoy. Without the older generation we wouldn't exist in the lifestyles in which we now take for granted. I hope that when my daughter grows old she feels valued and appreciated in a society in which she will have helped to lay the foundations of. I hope she will have more to look forward to than doing the pots and daytime television.

Learn more about this author, John Gray.
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