"Senior discounts should be scrapped" - researcher(s) suggest

Xelebes · Mar 4, 2015

Article via CBC:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/seniors-discounts-should-be-scrapped-study-suggests-1.2978843

A new report is calling on municipal governments to scrap seniors' discounts.

The study, called No Seniors' Specials: Financing Municipal Services in Aging Communities, was commissioned by the national think-tank Institute for Research on Public Policy.

. . .

"A lot of these discounts and special programs were introduced back in the 1960s, 1970s when a vast percentage of the seniors were poor," said the professor emeritus in the department of economics at Ontario's Trent University.

"Forward that through to 2008 [to] 2010, the percentage of poor in the seniors groups is smaller than any other age group in the country."

Another study had shown that the growing number people impoverished are not seniors but young adults, especially young mothers. This study also shows that the Canadian government (for example) spends three times per capita on seniors than it does on young adults.

Article per Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/02/11/government-spends-3-times-more-on-seniors-study.html

Seniors are receiving three times more government money than those under 45, according to a new study, the first to tabulate total public spending by age group.

Depending on what province they live in, Canadians over 65 receive between 2.9 and 3.9 times more in social spending than those under 45, writes the report released Wednesday by Generation Squeeze, a campaign for generational equity.

“It’s certainly not surprising that we spend more on seniors,” said Paul Kershaw, a public health professor at the University of British Columbia and founder of Generation Squeeze. This, he says, is because older people require more health care spending and expect to live out their golden years without working.

Living in Alberta where there is substantial growth, there is wealth to be had for younger Canadians but if you are from Ontario, British Columbia or Nova Scotia, the picture is different.

frimble3 · Mar 4, 2015

..."expect to live out their golden years without working." Excuse me? This sounds very much as though Kershaw is implying that seniors are lazy moochers, freeloading off society. Today's seniors paid taxes, paid into Social Security, paid into the Canadian Pension Plan. Nobody's 'giving' them money, they're getting back the money they loaned to all of us over the years.
And, yes, possibly changing a flat 'senior's discount' on government service into a means-tested discount, applied to everybody, would make more sense as more and more of our population becomes older. It's just the way this jerk put it that got my back up.

Roxxsmom · Mar 4, 2015

Just wait 10-20 years. Fewer than half of people in their 40s and 50s have anything like enough money saved for retirement, and pension plans are rapidly disappearing. Once the baby boomers die off, we'll be back to the elderly being a very poor demographic overall. A number of my peers assume they'll just work forever, but they don't realize that approximately half of all retirements happen unexpectedly (and prematurely), either because of a health issue or a layoff.

Xelebes · Mar 5, 2015

frimble3 said:
..."expect to live out their golden years without working." Excuse me? This sounds very much as though Kershaw is implying that seniors are lazy moochers, freeloading off society. Today's seniors paid taxes, paid into Social Security, paid into the Canadian Pension Plan. Nobody's 'giving' them money, they're getting back the money they loaned to all of us over the years.
And, yes, possibly changing a flat 'senior's discount' on government service into a means-tested discount, applied to everybody, would make more sense as more and more of our population becomes older. It's just the way this jerk put it that got my back up.

I think the role of the senior does have to change. There is the role of grandparent that they often fill (very useful) but what is their economic role in retirement?

Roxxsmom said:
Just wait 10-20 years. Fewer than half of people in their 40s and 50s have anything like enough money saved for retirement, and pension plans are rapidly disappearing. Once the baby boomers die off, we'll be back to the elderly being a very poor demographic overall. A number of my peers assume they'll just work forever, but they don't realize that approximately half of all retirements happen unexpectedly (and prematurely), either because of a health issue or a layoff.

Perhaps. But if money is invested in younger adults, perhaps they accumulate wealth quicker and as a consequence are able to enjoy retirement.

"Senior discounts should be scrapped" - researcher(s) suggest

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui