People are being booted out of their jobs at 50

And why shouldn't they? it's the market in action!(My father is 67 and still works because he likes to - he's a Salesman)

I don't think you need to go as far as globalization to understand that company loyalty is not something to take for granted. Howard Hughes used to say (back in the 1940s): no don't tell me about those people, I don't want to know about their lifes. I can't sack someone who'd child has cancer.In many organizations man has always been a cog*.* as an aside - interesting how companies now go on about the snakeoil that is knowledge management. If knowledge is so important, why in times of crisis, do they shed their "most valuable resource"?