you sound like you are or were a Mike Harris fan!! Totally agree though. No one should receive money for sitting on their ass.
Sorry, don't really know anything about him other than recognizing his name and some people hated him while others liked him.
Generally OAS was intended to be a supplement income for those who were less fortunate.
When your retired your not supposed to be supporting you and your family, at that point in life it is generally you and maybe your partner. Generally you have your housing paid off, and generally your expected to have savings to take care of yourself.
If 50k a year isn’t enough income to support your lifestyle retired, then your living extravagantly or have lived your life negligently. I know plenty of people who make less than 50k a year, don’t receive any money from the government, and still survive.
OAS is welfare, it isn’t CPP. It isn’t paid into your whole life. It isn’t something you or me are entitled to, it is something the state provides out of the goodness of their heart. Cutting the money provided to those who don’t need it and giving it to those that do is smart policy. If your making up to 134k a year you don’t deserve a cent of my tax dollars to fund your extravagance well most the working class is living and earning less.
I am not ok with welfare either, OAS is basically welfare for old people.
So you do put an age limit on when people can have children and receive benefits.
Housing paid off - that would be nice but in reality not everyone has had the chance to purchase a house due to various circumstances. Yes some they control but not everything is within our control. In some cases building a large down payment simply has not been possible and in some rent has been more affordable than buying. Some cases homes within price ranges simply were not available while others were priced out due to bidding from people with deeper pockets. Then there is that little pesky issue of not enough houses for our population size that keeps some out of owning.
Or they lived their life supporting family which some people do say having children is negligent but then isn't that the point - for us to have children?? Living extravagantly is off for some unless you consider feeding everyone and having a bus pass. I know for myself don't have a car or cable/satellite TV as I prefer to feed my kids. My parents had 15 kids, both worked, bought a house and when retired neither could afford to live without OAS. What they did wrong was to have a large family to feed, I know that was horribly wrong of them.
Yes some changes are needed but there is more than just "oh he makes this amount, doesn't deserve anything" to factor in as it is not just a matter of surviving, someone that has worked 40 - 50 years should be able to live comfortably. By some stats a single person in Canada on average needs up to $45k to cover basics so I see $50k too low for a senior in most Canadian locations while I do agree that $134k is too high for a lot. I believe there needs to be a family size and location factor in there. Maybe 2 parents renting in Toronto or Vancouver with 1 kid needs a little more than that single guy in Yarmouth living in the family inherited house.
OAS is similar to welfare except for one major difference - it is helping some old people that have worked their entire lives paying taxes that have funded this country while welfare is largely paying people that won't work or pay taxes. I would rather my money go to the OAS than welfare but understand a need for both as not everyone's circumstance is the same. Personally, I don't think providing more money for more kids to someone on welfare while the father(s) are claiming bad backs so not able to work is the way to go either (but they can spend all day working on their car - hmmmm).
. In our area, the cap providers can charge is $55/day, of which parents are currently paying $15-$18/day to the provider, and the agency pays the provider the other $40ish dollars. That adds up to approximately $71,500 gross income per year.
But that doesn't mesh with the government $10 a day they just pushed.
Here is another idea - instead of paying a daycare $40 a day why not pay the parent that money directly so they can stay home and take care of their children if they want to or use it to pay a daycare. Adding that amount to the savings from not going to work may be enough for some to choose staying home. I know my wife would be happy to have it.
