A multitude of studies and ponderous thinkpieces have been written about how an aging Quebec will cause the health care system to collapse.
But the aging of the population is causing another totally overlooked problem.
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With age, once-robust consumers are transformed into pennypinching spendthrifts.
That's because for an elderly person, a big spending day involves purchasing a new button for their threadbare cardigan.
Some old folk are poor but a solid number are well-off with good pensions that they don't end up spending due to lack of effort by pencilnecked marketing geeks who see older folk as a lost cause.
Studies show that after about age 54 folks stop blowing money on Playstations, fancy suits, new cars and George Clooney DVD box sets and that's a problem because mom'n'pop stores suffer, main street withers and the tax man's cupboard goes bare.
We need seniors to circulate their money rather than hoard it.
Yet many of our policies discourage them from doing that.
Take something like videopoker at the depanneur for example, a hobby popular among elderly with time and $20 to blow.
Our mother hen government made sure to ban that.
Bingo? Overregulated. Beer at a tavern? Not cheap anymore. Massage parlours? Busybodies want them closed.
Their cash is no good here so seniors end up spending money on vacations down south, pouring money into another country's economy and forcing Quebec into a $1 billion annual tourism deficit.
To help reverse this tide I propose that the Caisse du Depot front me $35 million to create the world's first Mature Mart, a shopping, entertainment and indoor artificial beach community for the elderly.
It would house a lot of baby clothing stores, as studies demonstrate that elderly women spend their money on the sartorial interests of their grandchildren.
Steve McQueen, Harold Lloyd, George Clooney movies would play all day long in a little theatre.
We'd have a ballroom dancing bar and a massive exercise and health complex bereft of intimidating musclemen.
And the centrepiece would be an indoor beach heated plenty with a domed roof to give the impression of being in Florida without the $15-a-day health insurance costs.
Quebec and other jurisdictions need to quell the reflex that pushes the elderly to keep their wallets closed. You can't take it with you, and hell no we don't need to pass our money down to our kids. Inheritances only turn the benefactors into entitled d parasites on intergenerational ghoul welfare, let them earn some pride by making their own ways in this world. Spend it all before your time is up.
But the aging of the population is causing another totally overlooked problem.
With age, once-robust consumers are transformed into pennypinching spendthrifts.That's because for an elderly person, a big spending day involves purchasing a new button for their threadbare cardigan.
Some old folk are poor but a solid number are well-off with good pensions that they don't end up spending due to lack of effort by pencilnecked marketing geeks who see older folk as a lost cause.
Studies show that after about age 54 folks stop blowing money on Playstations, fancy suits, new cars and George Clooney DVD box sets and that's a problem because mom'n'pop stores suffer, main street withers and the tax man's cupboard goes bare.
We need seniors to circulate their money rather than hoard it.
Yet many of our policies discourage them from doing that.
Take something like videopoker at the depanneur for example, a hobby popular among elderly with time and $20 to blow.
Our mother hen government made sure to ban that.
Bingo? Overregulated. Beer at a tavern? Not cheap anymore. Massage parlours? Busybodies want them closed.
Their cash is no good here so seniors end up spending money on vacations down south, pouring money into another country's economy and forcing Quebec into a $1 billion annual tourism deficit.
To help reverse this tide I propose that the Caisse du Depot front me $35 million to create the world's first Mature Mart, a shopping, entertainment and indoor artificial beach community for the elderly.
It would house a lot of baby clothing stores, as studies demonstrate that elderly women spend their money on the sartorial interests of their grandchildren.
Steve McQueen, Harold Lloyd, George Clooney movies would play all day long in a little theatre.
We'd have a ballroom dancing bar and a massive exercise and health complex bereft of intimidating musclemen.
And the centrepiece would be an indoor beach heated plenty with a domed roof to give the impression of being in Florida without the $15-a-day health insurance costs.
Quebec and other jurisdictions need to quell the reflex that pushes the elderly to keep their wallets closed. You can't take it with you, and hell no we don't need to pass our money down to our kids. Inheritances only turn the benefactors into entitled d parasites on intergenerational ghoul welfare, let them earn some pride by making their own ways in this world. Spend it all before your time is up.