I'm surprised I don't see a thread on this here already (if there is and I missed it, I apologize, please feel free to merge/delete this thread). A CBC article describes a very compelling argument for scrapping seniors' discounts, at least at the municipal level.
It makes perfect sense - why should you get a discount based solely on your age? Shouldn't such subsidies/welfare be based on income/wealth, rather than something as arbitrary as your age demographic?Harry Kitchen, the report's author, says a lot of the seniors' discounts offered by municipalities are unfair because most seniors don't need them.
"A lot of these discounts and special programs were introduced back in the 1960s, 1970s when a vast percentage of the seniors were poor," said the professor emeritus in the department of economics at Ontario's Trent University.
"Forward that through to 2008 [to] 2010, the percentage of poor in the seniors groups is smaller than any other age group in the country."
But he says municipalities giving a break to seniors are creating a situation where poorer younger people are subsidizing wealthier seniors.