Having been through it myself (buried for voicing a perfectly legitimate and reasoned, but politically unpopular position), I would say HN has a downvotes probl

Having been through it myself (buried for voicing a perfectly legitimate and reasoned, but politically unpopular position), I would say HN has a downvotes problem and would benefit from some metamoderation facility or at least significant reduction of available downvotes. They should be reserved for disruption and trolling and not much else. > Two employees, one 22 years old, one 50 years old. The younger employee makes $46k, the older employee makes $127k. Good god, why is the older employee take home such a massive paycheck for doing "slightly better" work than an entry level grunt? This is clearly a payscale that favors seniority above everything else, that's your real problem, not the aging workforce. I would say the exact opposite is usually true in most corporations, an order of magnitude productivity disparity is compressed in a 2:1, $50.000 to $100.000 compensation band. So while the old timer with the $100.000 paycheck might be somewhat less productive than a hotshot hire with the same advanced salary expectations, they are still many times more productive than the fresh out of college girl expecting half their salary. When you factor in the low friction, low risk, experience, loyalty and living institutional memory the older employees represent, you quickly realize how disruptive and stupid it is to simply throw them to the curve.