As I approach senior age territory, it’s becoming more and more apparent that I’m in deep shit. I’ve spent most of my adult life traveling and working around the world. I have about $230 in Canada pension a month due to supplement my savings . So I empathize with the plight of this new Vancouver senior who is trying to live on her allotted $1,000 a month. She pays $850 for an apartment where she has lived for 20 years and is facing moving out of the city to be able to afford rent and food.
Lectures aside about the foolishness of not saving enough to support oneself in old age, there are a ton of baby boomers reaching 65 who have little income to support themselves, especially in urban areas where rent is high and getting higher. As Canada’s rich/poor divide becoming more pronounced, and surely to become even greater the longer Harper is in control, there will be no housing affordable for seniors who live in urban areas.
It’s telling to see this rich/poor divide displayed so prominently on the front page of the Vancouver Sun featuring this compelling story of the senior aside a column featuring a story about a $40 million house and another devoted to the ‘the 25 most expensive houses”.
We may yet see in Canada and the US a new migration of seniors from cities to less inhabited areas, perhaps in communal situations, to be able to afford to live. It will be kind of like the 60’s all over again. Only less trippy and certainly less fun.
