Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
The dependency ratio is the third rail of politics in this country. Politicians can’t even remark that seniors, on average, use more public resources than working-age adults without seniors losing their minds. Never mind pointing out that the average Canadian receives far more in public services in their lifespan than they pay in taxes. Hard to grapple with the difficult tradeoffs we’re confronted with if most voters can’t even bring themselves to recognize there’s a problem in the first place.
I sympathize with the no-win situation politicians are in. Try to put the country’s long-term finances on a stable footing by introducing the GST? Your reward is getting destroyed in an election, and watching your opponents cut the tax anyway once they’re in power. Try to do the same for the viability of pensions by increasing the eligibility age for OAS? Bye-bye, and welcome to a new government that scraps the legislation and restores the former policy.
The Canadian electorate has shown zero willingness to endure any sacrifice to ensure the viability of our public services, and continues to reward leaders who punt problems down the road for future governments to deal with.
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The one thing that has been fixed (ironically given the discussion) is CPP. The changes in 1990s made it sustainable going forward and is a big feather for the Cretien/Martin Liberals imo. That's better than continuing to dig a bigger hole every year. The OAS changes Harper tried would have been another good step in making our system sustainable, but were overturned immediately when his government fell.