Obviously age discrimination is de facto policy at many companies.

And it’s to save money, of course — but I wonder if there isn’t another factor contributing?

HR is if you haven’t noticed usually filled with very young people, typically right out of college (Usually young women, but that doesn’t really matter I don’t think.)

Just an idea. No clue if it has any explanatory power, but I wonder how much age discrimination is just a fait accompli of a bunch of 23-year-olds who see anyone 40 and above as unbelievably, inconceivably ancient?

I’d be willing to wager that has something to do with it.

A test would be to see what sort of job ads are produced by HR departments that skew much older than average, and compare those to ads produced by departments that skew younger.

I suspect there’d be a difference.