Post 5--Senior Discounts (2)

Post 4--Senior Discounts (2)

I am slightly deviating from the subject I promised to deal with today, though only slightly, for I am still in the same realm of finance. I am appealing to another and earlier promise that many of my posts would react to articles in the Vancouver Sun. 

Yesterday, the Sun featured an article about the discounts Canadian seniors are getting at every front. The writer, along with writers in other publications, questioned the need and morality of these discounts. The conditions that led up to them have changed, especially the economic  conditions of most seniors. To be sure, there are the poor among them, but it can hardly be said that seniors as a whole constitute a poverty-stricken class today.  In spite of that, lobbyists for seniors, especially CARP--Canadian Association of Retired Persons--demand that the practice continue. CARP officials allegedly claim that they must advocate for the poor among them. Indeed, but that does not mean for all of their members, for the poor among its members are a minority.

I was sufficiently annoyed with CARP and their ilk that I did what comes natural to me: Write a letter to the editor. Herewith I reproduce it for your edification:

My, my, my! Where has the spirit of Canada’s parents and grandparents gone? Are we no longer (grand) parents and have instead turned into an egoistic lobby group to squeeze the most out of our system for ourselves?  Amazing! Shameful!

At a time:

       when wages are on a downward spiral and workers supporting families—our      

                   children —are having a tough time of it;

       when young secondary and tertiary graduates—our grand-children—cannot find   

                   jobs suitable for their skills;

       when single mothers—our granddaughters-- are squeezed to death;

       when school children—our grand- and great grandchildren-- come to school 

                   hungry;

       when the pool of wage earners supporting seniors is dwindling due to seniors 

                   refusing the responsibility of raising families, 

 

we seniors are demanding continued privileges for ourselves instead of our needy families!  And that not because we are necessarily poor—many of us are not—, but because we are seniors.

If there were any love, charity and sense of justice in our hearts, we seniors would lobby for our children and grandchildren as well as for the poor among us. CARP ought to be ashamed of itself. A bunch of well heeled and well organized egotists! This is the reason I have never joined them.