Of all the new phrases heard in recent months, particularly at year-end when this sort of thing gets talked about a lot, the term “forcibly retired” to describe the plight of many jobless over the age of 50 caught my attention and it was the subject of this Guardian story.

The year 2011 will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic Americans began to give up hope. President John F Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, in the receding tide, Americans are beginning to see not only that those with taller masts had been lifted far higher, but also that many of the smaller boats had been dashed to pieces in their wake.

In that brief moment when the tide was indeed rising, millions of people believed that they might have a fair chance of realising the “American Dream”.

Now those dreams, too, are receding. By 2011, the savings of those who had lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009 had been spent. Unemployment cheques had run out. Headlines announcing new hiring – still not enough to keep pace with the number of those who would normally have entered the labour force – meant little to the 50-year-olds with little hope of ever holding a job again.

Indeed, middle-aged people who thought that they would be unemployed for a few months have now realised that they were, in fact, forcibly retired. Young people who graduated from college with tens of thousands of dollars of education debt cannot find any jobs at all.

It gets even more depressing the further you read, a point that should have been clear from the title – Many Americans gave up hope last year – 2012 will be worse – but, I couldn’t help think what it’s like for the millions of people my age who took a very different route through life, perhaps worsening their financial situation as a result of the housing bubble.