This is a few weeks old, but I felt it is relevant here. Noticeably absent from the "speculation" as to the reasons fewer people in their 50's are working is the elephant in the room: Ageism. I gave up searching for work because it's painfully obvious my capability is not the issue. AARP has permanent support education for 50+ people trying to get hired.

All I hear about with respect to frustrations being unable to find a job is focused on the youngest, while it's the eldest that are being forced out at alarming rates. The worst part is we don't have any recovery path, and some of us are supporting adult children who can't find work.

We either navigated all the pratfalls life throws at us and have savings enough to "survive", or we didn't, and we become another near invisible member of the predominantly elder population of homeless standing by intersections hoping for a handout.

Next January possibly millions of over 50 people thrown out of work and unable to find any job (even minimum wage jobs) will lose their health coverage, since Medicaid begins requiring 20 hours per week of work to qualify.

We are well beyond "fearing dystopia" now. We've been living it for a decade, some would say longer.

When Keyana Sapp, 31, went shopping for a new backpack, the brands he remembered as a kid were just not the same.

He researched the companies, from North Face to JanSport and Eastpak, and soon realized they were all owned by the VF Corporation after a wave of acquisitions in the 2000s. After a Reddit post he made about his discovery picked up traction, he started looking at other types of consumer goods – cookware, shoes, tools, clothing.

“It seems like that was a story that just repeated in every industry,” Sapp told the Guardian.

I'm only 95% sure this is an April Fools joke. I honestly believe he wants to do something like this.

The implications for privacy are staggering, so I figured posting it here would be okay even though I think it's not real.

I find it alarming that to "protect" women, men have to be surveilled secretly in all public places. This is way beyond dystopian.

AI and remote security personnel get to decide if someone is "a predator" and take 'em down preemptively if they look suspicious.

What could possibly go wrong?

While the talking heads feign excitement over the "unexpected 130,000" new (healthcare) jobs last month, the reality quietly deepens.

I don't usually have sufficient motivation to post much on any social media platform. This is rare for me. I am putting this out in the world in part hoping for some validation, in part hoping it sparks some kind of social action to save some semblance of privacy and dignity in this modern world.

Warning: this is long.

I just wrote an email to a recruiter withdrawing my interest in pursuing a job (it's a recruiter hired by the hiring company). I am a software engineer with decades of experience who has been unemployed for almost a year with almost no interviews. I'm hungry for paying work. Yet. I did this. Below is the email I wrote, and it is hopefully self explanatory.

I think my career might be over - especially if the kind of process I experienced is now the standard for hiring. I want nothing to do with it.

I wrote this after multiple days of trying to set up my system for the "assessment". I ended up having to install Windows 11 (I'm a Linux guy) because the assessment environment simply didn't work. I tried FireFox, disabled plugins, tried two versions of Chrome - neither would work. It apparently had to be the Google version.

I upgraded an old version of Win 10 (because Microsoft pretty much forced it). Got it to work on Firefox for Windows.

Twice, mid-way through the assessment, it reset itself to square one. I didn't try a third time. This assessment software monitored my face and would raise an alarm if I looked away. It controlled my microphone. It required full access to every aspect of the browser and had me do an alt-tab partway through this "test" in order to ensure I wasn't using any other software. Insulting. Invasive. My equipment. My home.

---- the email ----8<----

First, I appreciate your understanding and that you gave me what information you have on how this software works. Now, the hard part. My disappointment will show in the text, and it is not directed at you or your company.

I'm inclined to cease pursuing this. I feel insulted by the process in the first place, but went through it understanding that we, as job seekers, have to accept compromises we would not otherwise accept because having a job is a fundamental requirement to literally survive and provide for our children.

However, the more I'm expected to change my personal, owned equipment and software in an invasive fashion just so some stranger can have 100% surveillance on my activities in my home in order to be considered for a job interview, the more insulted I become.

Granted, I'm unusual. I've dedicated myself to protecting my electronic privacy by installing malware and advertisement blockers on my phones, computers, tablets. I use VPN. I built my own home NAS because I am uncomfortable with placing all my personal, financial, and health records into "the cloud" (and being charged for the privilege). I am teaching myself how to use AI by downloading and running models in my home lab because I don't want to give out my privacy and income to strangers.

I stopped using Windows at home years ago because I could not stand the way it was dictating to me how to run my computer and constantly seeking to part me from my money with distracting advertisements while siphoning everything about me back to their servers to better market to me. Worse, it was forcing me to buy new hardware in order to simply run the system after upgrades.

Here I am, faced with a stark choice. Debase my values for the sake of the possibility of a job with a company that apparently doesn't consider applicants worthy of dignity, or remain unemployed - possibly forced to exit the career I love if everybody is doing this - and potentially fall into poverty.

If they're doing this before they even talk to me, it tells me that as an employee I will have at minimum this same level of surveillance. Knowing this in the back of my mind will burn me out in under six months.

Unfortunately, I don't think I could live with myself if I chose the first option, so I respectfully withdraw myself from this process. I'm a professional. I expect to be treated like one. If there are companies who are serious about hiring a professional, I'm all in. Please engage me.

The most affluent consumers account for a bigger share of total US spending, reinforcing the lopsided dynamic of unbothered consumption for the wealthy and more cautious shopping for everyone else.

I want to install Graphene on my Pixel 6. It is rooted and i use NeoBackup for app state, wifi, call logs, etc.

I do not want to startvfrom scratch and rebuild everything. Is it possible to port most of my data?