Centenarians in Japan are gifted a solid silver cup from the government. But lately so many Japanese people are reaching their 100th birthday, that the government has had to make the cup slightly smaller in order to save money.
Because old people are living much longer these days than they used to; which is a good thing. Old people are also, as a general rule, doing much better for themselves financially than they used to; which is also a good thing.
While the older generations are enjoying unprecedented levels of economic comfort, the younger generations have never had it harder. Stagnant wages, soaring housing costs, $9 strawberries; it’s hard out there for young people.
So why, then, does the ‘seniors discount’ still exist? Shouldn’t there instead be some kinda 'Millennial discount’ for the struggling middle demographic?
This is not going to be a popular sentiment, I’m well aware of that. Many seniors feel they’ve ‘earned’ the right to their senior discount, and any suggestion otherwise is surely to be met with derision.
Let me first point out that the idea of abolishing the seniors discount is not mine. This is something I read about elsewhere a few months ago, and it’s a concept that has been gaining momentum with most people who think about it from any kind of objective angle.
To understand how we got here, we need to go back a few generations. There was a time when, almost universally, senior citizens struggled financially. As a recognition of that fact, the seniors discount was born.
However, since the introduction of Old Age Security, and the fact that seniors have been able to sell their houses for enormous financial gains over the past few decades, the problem of senior citizen poverty has been vanishing.
In fact, senior citizens are now doing better than the average citizen. According to 2021 census data (the most recent available) the poverty rate across all citizens is 8.1 per cent, while the poverty rate among seniors (65+) is lower, at just 5.6 per cent. Compare this with the poverty rate among young adults (18 to 24) which sits at 14 per cent, and working age adults (25 to 54) which is at 7.9 per cent and one does start to wonder if the right group of people are the ones getting a discount.
Senior citizens have the lowest poverty rate of any age group of people in Canada, yet they are the ones getting all those sweet discounts. Does that make sense? Not really.
And still, seniors in Niagara somehow feel like they are getting the short end of the stick. Currently, Niagara Region Transit has a seniors discount rate where those aged 65+ pay a dollar less for a Regional Transit fare than everyone else. And yet, they feel this isn’t good enough. At a Niagara Falls Council meeting a few months ago, the city’s Seniors’ Advisory Committee demanded that they get an even steeper discount. City council agreed and passed a resolution calling on Niagara Region to further lower fares for seniors.
I don’t blame council for caving to their demands. It’s simply self preservation. Old people vote, young people don’t.
But I do think more places need to look at their discount policy and re-think exactly who needs a few extra bucks back in their wallet. Whether it’s Niagara Parks offering half-price admission tickets to seniors, Niagara Goodwill offering a 25 per discount to seniors, or GO Transit offering a 55 per cent discount to seniors, all I’m saying is, look, maybe give the youngsters a discount too. Either that or start charging old folks full price.
Because like Quentin Crisp said, “Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper.”
James Culic thinks his mother-in-law should still get a seniors discount, because she’s the absolute best. Find out how to yell at him at the bottom of this page, or use discount code GEEZER2024 to get half-off the price of a letter to the editor.
