Dear Editor:
Re: Seniors will bear brunt of cutbacks, Burnaby NOW, April 2.
Not too many of us would disagree that there seems to be a plethora of organizations out there competing for donations. Hardly a day goes by that someone somewhere isn't calling our household asking for a contribution to what it is hoped will become our charity or cause of choice. It has been a trend of 20 years and more created in the main by the continuing withdrawal of government funding of well-established non-government organizations, and compounded by an increase in newly formed community-based agencies to replace social services reduced or abandoned in the name of "prudent" spending or "balanced" budgets.
Another factor of donation dollar dry-up is undoubtedly the shrinking population that can afford it. At the front end are the poor and the jobless, including young graduates who are unable to find work for which they are trained. And at the back end are retirees who, because of a (often sharp) decrease in income, can less afford to donate as much as they used to.
Indeed, if Canadian employers continue their strident and stubborn push-back on pensions, including the Canada Pension Plan, it's not unlikely that many future retirees will become applicants for rather than financial supporters of charity.
And sandwiched between the two is the middle class. But here too the financial pinch of less and less affordability takes its toll. They may be better able to absorb rises in living costs that affect us all, such as hydro, property taxes, transportation, MSP, housing, auto insurance, and so on, but each rate increase means less discretionary spending. And less discretionary spending means less money to donate.
In the end, we are all the poorer for it.
Bill Brassington, Burnaby
