Unsustainable

Although it may be unfortunate that pension age is being pushed back, one thing the older generation often fails to grasp is the number coming up to retirement age. The baby boomer generation stands to retire over the next few years into a pension system the country can’t afford to keep running. My generation is the poorest generation since the early 1900s, making less money and working more hours in our youth than our parents or their parents. How can my generation be expected to keep paying for their pension program running with that in mind? How can we do it knowing the whole thing will probably not exist by the time we come of age?

Since my high school and university years, I’ve watched the average age of youth living at home consistently slide up every year. If my memory serves me, the average age right now is between 24 and 27. When our parents were our age, it was an oddity if you lived at home past 19 or 20. Yet the baby boomers say it’s because we are unable, due to lack of work ethic or effort.

How can the boomers complain about retirement if their kids lack the means to succeed in the same timeline as them? We are expected to keep their pension program money, pay their share of taxes, and keep all the systems in Canada running when we make less than any generation before us. How is it possible to make everyone happy?

Patrick Maclellan, Calgary