Posted on 05/29/2013 8:08:27 AM PDT by blam
It's High Time America Did Away With Senior Discounts
Alex Mayyasi, Priceonomics Blog
May 29, 2013, 10:44 AM
You’ve seen them on the bus, in museums, and at movie theaters: senior discounts.
As a reward for being old, senior citizens pay a quarter less for bus fare, a small fortune less for movie tickets, and receive discounts generally all over the place.
If you’re a twentysomething, or part of what some journalists have colorfully called “the screwed generation,” you may be wondering: why not me?
The idea that seniors are a group in need of help and protection dates back to the thirties, when America’s senior citizens were disproportionately poor and affected by the Depression wiping out everyone's savings.
In 1935, President Roosevelt passed the Social Security Act, which gave federal assistance to the elderly. This became the norm. Aid to seniors increased over time, in particular with the creation of Medicare in 1965 and the passage of an amendment indexing social security to cost of living increases and creating an additional Supplemental Security Income for seniors in 1972.
As two poverty economists note, “One of the most striking trends in elderly well-being in the twentieth century was the dramatic decline in income poverty among the elderly.” This can be seen in the graph below.
The United States only began measuring poverty in the 1960s, so we lack standard figures dating farther back than that. But it’s recognized that the trend of decreasing poverty among seniors dates back to the thirties and forties. 2011 Census figures place poverty among Americans aged 65 and older at 8.7%, well below the national average of 15%.
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(Excerpt) Read more at priceonomics.com ...
That's because we WORKED AND SAVED all our lives and didn't pi$$ away every dollar on colorful gimcrackery. We didn't buy $200 sneakers when $20 tennies would suffice and we didn't take flying weekend ski vacations to Aspen or Vail but stayed at home and played with our children. Now that we have the resources to do what we want when we want to do it, the Marxists and a lot of their empty headed enablers see us as another piggy bank to be broken into to satisfy their insatiable lust for other peoples money.
Maybe the discounts and the fiscal sense to use them, were one of the reasons that couple had what they did.
Senior Wednesdays at Captain D’s are packed!
Wow! You get pissed off easy.
You must have never learned that life is not fair.
Explain how not providing a discount to the older couple would have helped the younger couple?
You have perfectly described the heart of the matter. In the realm of managerial economics, the term is "price discrimination", where a firm maximizes its revenues by charging a lower price to the demographic which otherwise would not purchase. It's obvious the writer of the piece has a meager education in economics.
so a little about the website that published this garbage:
About Us
Priceonomics is the price guide for everything. We’re based in San Francisco, CA.
Price guides are helpful for buying and selling used things. How much should I spend on this used phone on eBay? What’s a good price to list my stereo system for? Is this used Vespa a good deal, or what?
We hate getting ripped off or over-paying for stuff so we built Priceonomics. We search and analyze hundreds of millions of listings on the web to build our price guides. We hope you can use these reports to get the most value for the best price.
Today, we provide price estimates for used bicycles, televisions, speakers, monitors, turntables, computers, cell phones and much more. Some day soon, we’ll cover just about anything you might want to buy or sell. We’re just getting started.
Get in touch here or at info@priceonomics.com.
Apparently they think they are going to be the price experts on everything. There are three men listed in the profile,,all full of themselves
I justify it because its less of an age related discount than it is a matter of work required.
I love the Kroger senior discount. I live alone on approximately $18K a year and have calculated that I save at least $5-7 a month with the Kroger discount. Plus I have found that most of the Kroger brand products are every bit as good as the major name brands. I don’t go to movies or eat out much so this is the main venue where I can save some money. I can get my gas cheaper too at Kroger.
Maybe one of these days interest rates will go above zero and I can be a little freer with my money. But I’m not holding my breath!
Just hope my favorite Chinese buffet can stay in business now that I qualify for the senior discount
Lady’s night and kiddie discounts, family discount, couple’s rates, senior discounts, kiddie menus, 4:00 dinner discount,
I’m just not prepared today to worry about this stuff.
Why exactly do you care?
So is knee jerk class envy. Don't fall into that trap. It's a business decision to provide a discount to whomever the business owner deems will enhance their business. Did you ask the mercedes guy if he considered the discount an entitlement or are you just projecting a sense of entitlement based on the affluent disparity you witnessed? Be careful of what you think you see.
Senior discounts don’t happen to give seniors help. They happen to get prices in line with what seniors are willing to pay. Which is why they aren’t going anywhere. If you’re in a business that will have a solid senior clientele but your pricing surveys they won’t pay full price you’ve got the choice: get their business at a discount, or don’t get their business. The former makes more money, thus the discount.
But this is the group of old geezers that voted themselves YOUR PAYCHECK 30 years ago kiddies!
I hear more and more young citizens complaining about paying into SS when all they hear is that is will be broke 20 years before they ever retire.
I have said it many times- I will GLADLY give up any claim on what I ‘paid into’ social security if I can keep the 15% myself, for as long as I choose to remain working. (tax-free)
And how many grandmas and grandpas are the go to people when baby can’t make the mortgage or the car payment? How many older moms and dads have lost their privacy and at leasr a third of their income because johnny came rolling home with a wife or something and no visible means of support?
They use your water, electricity, gas, your car and gasoline, your laundry detergent, toilet paper, shampoo, and on and on, and eat your food with no end in sight.
Seen it happen. And someone has the nerve to bitch because someone gets a dime off a cup of coffee? Please.
Baby boomer entitlement has cut a swath through our culture and economy. They started voting in the mid 60's and have restructured Government spending and corporate policy according to their age at the time.
dirty little secret, the elderly discounts also locally are given to people with disabilities - at least in the UP of Michigan
Who knew Senior discounts were still around? I haven’t seen any for many years.
of course now that I'm almost 60, the senior discounts would be useful, and that is the story of my life.....too late to the party...
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