Seniors Benefits Discussion- split from Liberal (Minority/Majority) Government 2025 - ???

[Brad Sallows]

Your generation started

Which generation? People ought to avoid that nonsense framing. At any given time there are members of at least four generations voting. With respect to Boomers in particular, the 1965 election was the first in which any Boomer could have been old enough to vote, and only very few at that time. Nothing in polling data suggest that there is any generation which is steadfastly voting in overwhelming majority numbers for whichever party is most dedicated to balanced budgeting.

Your generation was known for buying muscle cars as toys, but were still able to afford the house, wife and kids. A couple poor decisions made well young didn’t permanently fiscally cripple you.

That's just funny. Very few families actually owned muscle cars during the muscle car era; they were mostly a young single guy thing. (How many times have I heard the "I wish Dad had kept the [insert hot wheels here] after him and Mom got married" story...) Many families just had a succession of used cars, one or two at a time. Large RVs and fifth wheels were very uncommon.

Not much point trying to convince people who were alive during that time that the movie running in your head is what was actually happening.

You want real hardship, try starting over after being kicked off your farm by the Nazis and watching them destroy all the livestock and burn all the buildings down to the foundations.

[Add: skipping $3 coffees isn't the point. The point is a broad pattern of spending habits that don't include, among many other indulgences, $3 coffees.]

 

[mariomike]

You are going to have to find someone else to blame for all our ailments I am afraid.

After 27 pages , I doubt it.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I feel for young people today, it is going to be a hard road to haul. But I also see young guys driving $60-70,000 trucks likley bought on a payment plan, I have no idea how they do that.

 

[OldSolduer]

I feel for young people today, it is going to be a hard road to haul. But I also see young guys driving $60-70,000 trucks likley bought on a payment plan, I have no idea how they do that.

Pay about 300 every 14 days

 

[ytz]

I have no more words on this subject after this.

What shocks me most is how selfish some members of the older generations can be, and how fiercely they defend what they believe they are entitled to.

In doing so, they are leaving behind a poor legacy, one that I do not believe will be remembered fondly. They have become an example of the saying: hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create soft men, and soft men create hard times.

Unfortunately, it seems they are now the soft men creating hard times for those who follow.

Everything self-corrects. And this will too. Either we correct it in an orderly manner now or it unravels spectacularly later. France is going through the latter now. The bond market is forcing a hard reckoning there. The US is on the precipice of the same as their Social Security heads to zero in 2032. If our current deficits keep up, the same will happen here.

I would personally prefer we have this conversation calmly now. If not, come the 2030s, we'll be imposing severe cuts then.

 

[ytz]

Maybe a possible path forward concerning the potential reduction/elimination of the OAS at higher income levels is to make CPP payments 100% income tax exempt. This would soften the blow for some.
This would cut the current outlay of OAS payments, allowing for the money to be redirected into paying down the Federal debt (1st priority for me), followed by ensuring CAF budgets are fully funded and then if there is money still on the table (and there should be), allocating it to Childcare and other family enhancing programmes.

The deficit is massive an growing. And the majority of it is entitlment programs. There's no tinkering as a solution here. It will have to be means tested and capped at lower levels. Either we cap OAS at $100k now, or we can wait for 2035 and watch the financial situation drive a cap of $70k.

 

[Eaglelord17]

I feel for young people today, it is going to be a hard road to haul. But I also see young guys driving $60-70,000 trucks likley bought on a payment plan, I have no idea how they do that.

A small number. There is also substantially more who don’t. It is easy to point to the egregious examples and say ‘look it is all their own fault’ when the reality is multiple generations are struggling no matter how fiscally disciplined they are or not.

There is pretty much no one who buys a new vehicle cash these days, no matter what age group.

Another example of current generations being screwed is the 100k+ of student loans they are forced to take to get into entry level jobs that used to be a hire right from high school job.

My parents were married by 22, bought a house by 23, had kids by 25. All on a part time teaching and full time security guard salary. That isn’t possible today and it is no fault of the youth that it isn’t.