Breaks for Age groups

[cakadu]

I was speaking with a lady the other day, who happens to be a senior and we were talking about starting out with young families. She felt that it wasn't necessary to give seniors all the breaks in terms of price discounts as most - not all - seniors could afford these things and she felt it was young families that deserved the breaks. She was referring to things like getting your family to a well deserved outing like a fair or something of that nature. It isn't cheap to take in the Stampede, or here in Central Alberta - Westerner Days - by the time you pay admission, buy ride tickets and then try to find something decent to eat in all that "fair food".

I personally have mixed thoughts on it and never really thought about it from that perspective before. I think right now that there are many rural families struggling and certainly there are many single moms and lower income families that don't have the opportunities to give these sorts of things to their kids.

On the other hand, I look at what has happened in our elder care facilities - not the ones where you live in a seniors community, but the places where seniors require daily assisted living. There has been a 40% increase in the fees that are required to be paid at these places and with only a month's notice of the increase. Now it seems to me that if this were a normal landlord/tenant arrangement, such a hike wouldn't be tolerated, nor could anything like that be implemented without 90 days notice. How do you feel about these increases? One day we will all be in the "senior" category.

Where do you feel price breaks should come in?

[Smithy]

cakadu;
I see price breaks for seniors as more of an apprecaiation for the many years they have contributed to society and not so much because I think they need them.
The price increases in seniors' care are horrible and I do not understand why there is no protection from hikes like that. They cause a lots of stress and hardship as once someone is settled in a facilty it is sometimes difficult to move.

[cakadu]

Thats a good way to look at the price breaks - never thought about it from that perspective.

In terms of the fee hikes, given that there seems to be a chronic shortage and endless waiting lists for spaces in some of these facilities, I would think it fairly tough to just move somewhere else, especially if the rate hikes are across the board.

It seems to me that if we are to cherish and respect the seniors for the innovations, experiences and hard work that they have given to us, then this doesn't seem like too good a manner in which to reward them.

It's interesting - other societies and cultures treat their elders with much more reverence and deference than we seem to.

[wilagro]

Don't expect this government to have any compassion for senior citizens. They have been chipping away at seniors benefits for years.

[countryguy]

Personally,I don't think seniors should be given price breaks on the day to day discounts.(The fee hikes in the care homes is a different story which I was unaware of until now)It is the young people starting out in this dog eat dog world that should be helped along.

Some of the VALID seniors discounts are given because alot of them don't have alot saved up and are living on a fixed income(small pensions alone).

Why I said "valid discounts" in the previous paragraph is because it is rumored that alot of these discounts are nothing more than a marketing ploy to get them into the store on a particular day.On the days that stores are offering the 10 or 15% discounts it is rumored that the prices of the products secretly go up by that same margin.