They can enjoy the fruits of their labour. What we're questioning is why the rest of us should be subsidizing them. OAS was originally meant to keep seniors out of poverty. Not to fund vacations in Europe. Support programs even had asset tests decades ago. We got rid of those and give people with six figure incomes pogey. In any other context, that would be considered absurd.
As somebody on track for a $90k per year pension in a few years, I'm more than happy to say that me and anybody else in my income bracket shouldn't get a penny of OAS. There are many other priorities that need to be addressed in this country. Most notably child poverty which is now double that of seniors I believe. Infrastructure backlogs. The deficit. And defence spending. Absurd to defend welfare for the rich when the list of everything else we have to do is a mile long.
Those individuals who consistently saved year in and year out over 20-30-40yrs towards their retirement in the past shouldn't be penalized for this or demonized for it. To me, its the old Ant vs Grasshopper story. EACH person has the ability to be the Ant or the Grasshopper. They each have free will and their actions later in life will have consequences.
With that being said, OAS should be geared towards individuals who worked 20-30-40yrs in lower paying jobs, paying into CPP the entire time, and used to top off their retirement payments. Should someone who consistently made 90-100k+ a year but didn't save for their retirement get OAS because their retirement income is going to be only 30k/yr? No, not to me.
I'd rather 'reward' that person who shlepped coffee at Tim Hortons or was a hotel maid or a ECE or a grocery clerk for 20-30-40yrs making 30-50k/yr with a better retirement life, meaning full OAS, than the person making 90k going off on vacation to Florida, Cuba or where ever, leasing a big truck or foreign SUV, the newest iPhone in their hand, getting Door Dash 3-5times a week, all the time not saving adequately for their retirement and then crying poverty when they turn 65.
Without forgetting our 'morals' and 'sense of 'community/right and wrong', following the words of the now dead Deng Xiaoping - 'To get rich is glorious' Somehow we Canadians are to meek and too afraid to say this phase loudly and proudly.
Every problem has a solution lying out there waiting to be found. High gas prices at the pumps? Stop complaining about it and spend an hour or three and research which gas/oil companies are the best to invest in. Open a TFSA or RSP and start buying the company that look bests for you. In the end you'll be making money and rising gas/oil prices will effect you less than before.
There's another old investing phase - 'Know what you own and why you own it." I believe that's from Peter Lynch. I follow this in virtually all long term investments that I own. When my kids where younger we used Pampers instead of Huggies. I had no clue why. I asked my wife, she said that she had begun asking all of her friends who had kids before us which diapers they used and why? (Market Research, product understanding). She said that the majority said 'Pampers' and that their reasons made sense to her, so we used Pampers. Well, I looked at who made Pampers 19-20yrs ago, Procter & Gamble. I knew little about them as a company 20yrs ago. I looked at what use they made - Tide laundry detergent, oh, we used Tidy for our laundry. They made Gillette razors, well both myself and my wife used them. Head & Shoulders, I used it. Vicks cold medicine, yup, we used it. Ivory dish soap, again, we used it. Febreze - again, we used it. Crest toothpaste, yes we used it. After 10mins of going through their product list 20yrs ago and seeing just how many of their products we used throughout the house and how much money that must translate yearly into, money that we were handing over to them, I realised that owning Procter & Gamble made HUGE sense to me. I knew their products and I now knew why I had to own them. Happy to say that 20yrs later I still own P & G and that I've added to my original investment periodically over the last 20yrs.
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