Ursula Adler Falk and Gerhard Falk

In the following viewpoint, Ursula Adler Falk and Gerhard Falk maintain that aging Americans face considerable economic discrimination, especially in the workplace. For example, the authors assert, older workers are sometimes fired regardless of their job performance or passed over for promotions in favor of younger employees. According to the Falks, older Americans suffer a loss of social honor and prestige as a result of this economic exclusion. Ursula Adler Falk, a psychotherapist and gerontologist, and Gerhard Falk, a sociologist and historian, are the co-authors of Ageism, the Aged and Aging in America: On Being Old in an Alienated Society, the book from which this viewpoint was excerpted.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How do political skills in the workplace affect how older workers are evaluated...