Discounts Eliminated for Senior Citizens

Considering that the seniors citizens are taking over the largest  sector of the American  population, many of them work after retirement, and these folks have some discretionary income. you'd think that theaters nationwide would be courting that sector more reasonably. Some of the large theater chains are not doing so.

I see that several fast food and casual dining chains have raised he age for their senior discounts. A decade ago, age 50 was the criterion for the discount to be offered. Gradually, the age at which people qualify for the senior discounts at several places in my Midwestern town rose to 55, 60, 62, and finally 65. One person jokes:

"Every time I hit the discount age, they raise it!"

Coincidentally, couponing in the grocery stores took a dive during the same years. Shoppers were historically able to purchase just one of a product in order to use a cents-off coupon. Gradually, this type of offer began to require the purchase of two or three of an item, all the way up to 10 items in one shopping trip. To me, 15 cents off of 10 cups of yogurt is not worth the time needed to cut out the coupon. 

Senior citizens are being put at a disadvantage by businesses in many places around America.  

At the same time, the age for Social Security Retirement has been rising, thanks to the congressional actions taken by the US Congress under President Ronald Reagan. The age for receiving full benefits from SS Retirement has risen among Baby Boomers to 66 and 67. Reagan's Congress put into place a mandate to raise the age to 75. Our Generation Z may finally receive no income from this fund at all.  I wonder if they know that?

H#@*! -- Some individuals of Generation Y and Z are telling older employees to quit work, based on the fact that the oldsters have "worked a lot of years and are being selfish to continue working." Some of the younger workers are telling the senior workers that they are evil and taking jobs and pay raises away form them. Hey! Many people ages 55 - 65 today earn less than $12,000/year from work and the Social Security they would receive at retirement is scheduled for a cut in 2016.

The low pay often comes from the status of the older worker as a contractor not benefitting even from the Minimum Wage, or through Negative Raises.

One construction company in my city forces employers to accept a 2% reduction in wages annually, beginning on their 50th birthday. The company is non-union in an at-will employment state, so nothing can be done legally to prevent this - or so the employees have been advised.

I am surprised that seniors have not risen up and rioted about the reductions in income and discounts they might need in order to stay alive. A riot in Boston nearly 100 years ago by the seniors of the city against a high-priced hospital succeeded in lowering healthcare costs at the time.

Medicare rates rise yearly, but the Social Security Retirement checks to which Medicare is attached and deducted will be reduced.  

We might as well follow some of he more obscure Native American traditions of the past and stand the seniors out under a tree, forcing them to stand there until they die.

Our seniors today who are not wealthy may be - or become - too sick and disabled to come together to riot. I am reminded of a high rise retirement center in Chicago circa Summer 1995. The windows were sealed shut to prevent falls. Many residents were bedfast or wheelchair bound, but they had elevators. During a heat wave, the air conditioning stopped when the power went out on every floor. The elevators were useless.

Unfortunately, the few staff people in the building left and 500 sick and disabled seniors died from the heat. Senior citizens deserve better.