[sillysaurus3]

We need a strong social net that works for everyone, not equal opportunity at work for old folks (or insert demographics here).

Disagree. The point of a social net is to catch those who fall, not those who dont.

I'd take this one step further though. Equal opportunity programs seem to be harmful in our industry. The moment we try to enforce a hiring quota, everyone else starts to feel resentful. That causes real difficulties in a team-based setting. I'm not sure whether those difficulties outweigh the good brought by the programs, but it's hard to argue that they're objectively good.

Rather than an equal opportunity program, it would be better to rid of our own mistaken idea that old people are less intelligent.

Personally, I'd expect older people to do better than younger people. I fear that we can't fix the human brain rotting(?) away if we deny it is happening.

I made no such argument. Again: The old people that populate our industry are the stellar outliers. They're the ones who are smart in spite of the brain rotting (such an endearing term we've chosen). Even if that's true in the general case, it doesn't matter that the average old person is less intelligent. Our industry isn't filled with average old people.