Newfoundland seniors need more money?

A caller phoned into Back Talk with Paddy Daly, of course looking for more money from the government because her meager seniors' pension is simply not enough in her opinion. She wants more from the government. She says the Harper announced more funding for seniors but did not deliver on that promise.

But the most shocking part of all this is how much this particular senior says she pays for heating her house. She says she has an oil stove and electric heat. She says in the winter she sometimes pays $400 for each, for a total of $800 for one month. Really? How does she pay this much? She is a single person because her husband passed away. So it's $800 for a single individual. I find this number rather shocking.

I live by myself also in a fairly spacious apartment, considering it is for one person. I don't have my receipts here with me, but I recall my highest heat bill ever, and that includes all power that I used, was around $130. Even if I had the heat on bust 24 hours a day in all rooms and had all hot water taps running, I doubt I could get my bill to $800.

So it seems from the little information this lady provided, she is living in a relatively large household. That is completely her right. But the thing that sort of annoys me is people think they can simply choose whatever lifestyle they want and that the government must support them. The government has moved very far away from making sure everyone has a certain standard of living to raising taxes to ensure a small elite group of people are catered to in their every whim.

I'm sure this lady is a very fine person, but if she is really struggling the way she says, she should consider moving into a smaller abode. If she has a house, maybe she could sell it and move into an apartment or smaller house and perhaps collect a difference of $100,000 or more which she could use to pay for energy.

This reminds me of a documentary I saw one time about credit cards. They showed these sob stories of people who could no longer afford their houses and they spoke of how evil the credit card companies were for trying to reclaim their money. One lady in particular had an enormous house, which she could afford when her husband was alive, but now that he died, she could not afford such a huge house. However, she refused to even consider moving.

I understand people are very attached to their houses, and it's a sad situation, but you cannot expect other people to pay for your expenses, even if you have other options. In this case, she could have easily moved into a smaller house and used the extra money to pay her debts.

But this is what happens when you believe the government is there to take care of you. If your way to increase your income is to campaign the government then that's what people will do. And no one will ever say the government is giving them too much or even enough. Everyone in this scenario has a vested interest in demanding more.