Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
I won't presume to speak for Azure, but I agree with the statement.
The national debt was primarily racked up during the Trudeau and Mulroney years (68 thru 93), when the boomers demanded government services but didn't want to pay for them, we just borrowed the money. In 1970, around the start of the Trudeau years, total federal spending was 16 billion dollars per year. By the end of Trudeau's era, in '84 we were spending 22 billion IN INTEREST CHARGES ALONE!! Total government expenditures was now 109 billion. Sixteen billion to 109 billion under one prime minister (well, and Joe Who, but he doesn't count). And it didn't stop there. Mulroney increased spending up to 161 billion in '92. And it took Mulroney's GST and Paul Martin's slashing of transfers to the provinces to get us out of the banana republic state, but we still have a massive federal debt and are paying 31 billion in interest payments every year. It was the boomers that racked up that debt, but it's the Gen X and Gen Y that are trying to pay it off now.
However, it's only going to get worse. The boomers still control the politics of the country. They have the numbers and the votes. They will not be happy with any cuts to OAS, CPP or any other benefits they have coming to them. They will require more and more health care spending as well as social services for the elderly. The government just won't have the money to support the boomers in retirement, in part because of the overspending by the governments voted in by the boomers.
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When I talk to or just listen to boomers, they always argue that they pay taxes for these services, the new immigrant that comes here at their 60s does not.
"If you want your parents to come to Canada, you pay for it!" Stuff like that.