FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Dec 5

Today’s Younger Generations Are Paying To Support Older Generations

by bcurry

The recent federal fall economic statement once again reminds Canadians that previous governments never worked out how to pay for the healthy retirement of baby boomers.  Studies note that when boomers came of age as young adults, there were seven working-age residents for every retiree.  Now in retirement, boomers want the same or better supports when there are just three workers to pay for every person over age 65. The economic update reports some $150-billion (Can) in new spending on retirees between now and 2028, with possibly many billions more to follow.  These monies will drive up tax payments from younger people for today’s retirees well beyond what those retirees paid toward seniors when they were young.  Needless-to-say, organizations representing the interests of younger workers, such as Generation Squeeze, are not at all happy with the lack of alternative funding in support of younger Canadians.  In addition, all this means that deficits are increasing, and eventually someone will have to pay for the ongoing increases in our debt load.

Yes there are more monies in the budget to lower child-care expenses and to assist in improving the housing market for potential buyers, but both are a somewhat late in happening.  The mood among younger generations isn’t all that great.  They view, and perhaps understandably, that boomers have been given greater advantages when it comes to retirement.  Canadian seniors have access to a reasonably good social security system, much of it provided through public pension plans and a progressive taxation system supporting the elderly.  In addition, Canada has a universal health care system which provides affordable health care for an aging population. 

Younger workers are faced with fewer private pension plans, which unlike the boomers makes up a major part of their retirement income.  While defined pension plans are ubiquitous in the Canadian public sector, in the private sector barely one in five employees is covered according to a 2016 study.  Most past private sector pension plans, where they exist, employ a defined contribution plan.  Increasingly, today’s defined contribution plans require that employees invest their contributions in financial markets and incur the risk as to the value of their individual investments.  Defined benefit plans on the other hand were built up within the employer-provided plan and more-or-less guaranteed an annual pension payment upon retirement as long as the person lives.  Furthermore, investment risks associated with defined benefit plans are shared among employees and employers.

Today, younger workers are also affected by past lower compensation in comparison with the increasing cost of living.  Putting monies aside as part of building up a retirement nest egg has now become more important than ever.  Even if a Canadian retires at 65 — the age an individual is eligible for the Canada Pension Plan — and lives until 90, they will effectively need to live off savings for another 25 years of their life, a prospect for which many are not prepared.  For whatever reason, many younger workers are not in a position to put away a proportion of their income towards future retirement, even though there are government taxation schemes which allow for annual contributions such as the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) which offers equivalent tax credits.  For many workers without employer pension plans, RRSPs often represent the only means of financial planning for retirement.  For lower income groups, even setting aside monies for RRSPs can be difficult if not impossible.

According to Statistics Canada, today the average Canadian will live until age 82, with the number of centenarians — those reaching the age of 100 — continuing to grow.  In 2019, the World Economic Forum suggested that Canadians on average will outlive their retirement savings by more than 10 years.  Over more prosperous years, today’s boomers have been able to build up their wealth, housing being a major part of that wealth.  Their children may in some cases be forced to wait for access to that wealth in order to afford housing or prepare for their eventual retirement.  As a result, they will most likely have to wait for their inheritance for some time to come given the projected longer life span of today’s boomers.  No wonder the younger generation isn’t too happy about their current situation and envy older generations!

Ageism Canada Economy High Student Debt Labour Force Seniors

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Apr 30

How We Treat Elders is a Reflection of Our Societal Values

by bcurry

Statistically, we are living longer in North America because of better nutrition, health care and medical innovations.  As a senior myself, I have a lot of concerns about how we treat elders.  COVID demonstrated how inadequate our long-term care facilities and senior residences were and continue to operate.  First and foremost, the issue of increasing longevity is a major one given that we have an aging population.  In addition, we have a society that is still primarily focused economically and socially on youth as was the case for much of the mid-twentieth century and on.  The fact that the U.S. has a current president who is over eighty should tell us something, instead of raising concerns over his age in terms of a possible second term.  Ageism is a factor in our everyday lives.  Take it from someone who has faced it first hand.

In other societies, elders are treated with much more respect and consideration.  These seniors often have experienced things, such as wars, persecution and severe poverty: things which none of our younger generation has ever really had to face head on.  Many immigrated to the U.S. and Canada after the Second World War in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families.  Their stories represent the history of post-war immigrants who fled following the collapse of European countries and the emergence of the Soviet Union, and their efforts to create new productive lives in both countries.  I myself was an immigrant making up this historic migration when my parents came to Canada shortly after the war.

For those who fought in the war, we frequently recognize them as the “greatest generation”, many shaped by the Great Depression and who represented the primary generation composing the enlisted forces in World War II.  In past years, they had an important place in our society in light of their sacrifices and experiences.  They passed on their values of working hard and sacrificing for their families, especially their children.  Now, many who were part of the so-called greatest generation are slowly disappearing.  They are no longer there to serve as valuable role models for my generation and our youth.  Instead, in our micro-family society the role of elders has been diminished and diluted to the point of blatant obscurity.  In most cases, they are no longer living with their children and their families.  They are often placed in senior residences and long-term care facilities.  Some seniors are fortunate enough and financially able to stay in their homes with available home care.  However, for some seniors, this possibility is unaffordable or simply unavailable.

Interestingly, it’s somewhat ironic that both countries have federal governments where the elected representation is one with more seniors proportionately represented in comparison to the general population.  For example, the 118th Congress is the third oldest since 1789 and the average age of Congress has been climbing since the early 1980s.  Today, the average age in the U.S. Senate is 63.9 years, and 57.5 years in the House of Representatives.  In Canada, the average age in the federal 39th parliament is about 52 years.  The Canadian senate has more seniors because members, appointed by parliament for their experience and past contributions to Canadian society, can sit in the Senate until the age of 75.

When it comes to governance, including the judiciary, there is much more recognition of the value of knowledge gained through life’s experiences.  Unfortunately, this recognition is not always carried over into our daily lives.  One only has to listen to the stories of our elders to realize their important contributions to our society, no matter how small and distant.  They are part of our history which needs to be recorded for posterity, thereby becoming part of their legacies.  The next time that you encounter a senior, take the time to listen to their personal histories and stories.  After all, they helped to contribute to our society’s foundation and to those changes which helped us evolve into today’s modern society: socially, politically and economically.  We owe it to the elders not to simply ignore them, but to treat them humanely with the respect they deserve as invaluable assets.

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Jun 4

While Thousands Protest Racism, Who’s Protesting Against Ageism?

by bcurry

While one can certainly empathize with the protesters over the recent murder of a black man by police and continuing racism in America, there is another large group of people who deserve an equal amount of empathy in this day and age. They are our seniors, and their numbers are growing.  Recent statistics in Canada show that the older cohort – the baby boomers and gen-Xers – represent nearly 45 percent of Canada’s population, or 16,753,198 people.  By 2030, Statistics Canada estimates it will be 46.5 percent, or 19,461,400 people.  The stats are somewhat similar in the U.S.  In the not too distant future, one out of four Canadians will be over the age of 65.  Yet, discrimination against seniors continues because of “ageism”.

In 2,011, a disturbing survey in the United Kingdom of adults who were over 18 revealed that two out of five young people aged between 18 and 24 believed that there were not enough jobs for older people to continue working. Fourteen percent felt that older people should retire to make way for young blood.  Even more shocking, seven out of ten young people did not consider older relatives to be an important part of the family, while ten percent considered it a chore to go and see them.  Researchers often refer to such attitudes as ageism and rightly so.

For years, North Americans have been warehousing the majority of their elderly citizens. Seniors have been ushered away from families and communities into retirement and so-called long-term care residences.  Unfortunately, many of these residences were built in the early seventies when the idea was to accommodate as many residents as possible into one facility, regardless of conditions resulting in overcrowding.  Today, the pandemic has illustrated how such warehousing unfortunately has often led to deaths representing more than eighty percent of COVID-19 related deaths in the general population.  Politicians are now raving that the numbers are inexcusable and horrific, especially for those thousands housed in long-term care.  Where were they years ago when several studies outlined ongoing problems with staff shortages, inadequate resident care and government standards, and lack of affordable accommodation and health care?

More and more seniors are being forced to continue working because of living near the poverty line and a lack of retirement savings. However, many employers continue to discriminate against the hiring of seniors for indefensible reasons, despite all the experience and skills such persons can bring to a job.  This again is a form of overt ageism.  Maybe it’s time that we have a real national ‘Grey Pride’ movement.  Sometimes the elderly have difficulties in speaking for themselves.  Maybe the time has come for all citizens to force governments to address the serious issues surrounding ageism in society.  The time for lip service is long gone, the time for action is now.  After all, the reality is that we have ageing populations, whether we believe it or not.

Ageism Agism Canada US

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