A Senior Moment

A group of young students were on a bus discussing the burden placed on society by the older generation of pensioners. One of the pensioners took great exception to some of the comments and stated that he thought it was impossible for some of the older generation to understand todays younger generation and vice-versa. Things had changed so much during the years between their ages. As he was explaining the student interrupted him.

"You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one," the student said, loud enough for all his friends and most of the other passengers to hear.

"The young people of today grew up with colour high definition digital television, high quality music on CD's and MP3 players, jet travel, space travel, trains that have never travelled faster, man walking on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars. We have nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers with light-speed processing and ..."

The pensioner interrupted him and said "You're right, son. We didn't have those things to enjoy and marvel at when we were young.......so we invented them. What are you doing for the next generation?"

The applause was resounding...

Hat tip to WhichEndBites

Whichendbites: A SENIOR MOMENT

Old Age Bankruptcy

The story in the Independent that

Pensioners have become so laden with debt that the number filing for bankruptcy has increased eight-fold in five years. Campaigners are blaming the worrying rise on a combination of cheap credit, soaring living costs and the complicated benefits system.

Nearly 8,000 people aged 65 or over took the ultimate financial sanction last year and sought bankruptcy – up from 900 in 2002. The figure is just one of a series of statistics this week showing the growing financial burden and consequences of an ageing population.

is a shocking reflection on todays society.

According to Joe Harris, the leader of the National Pensioners Convention.

"Many older people feel the whole process of having to parade their poverty in order to get a little bit extra to live on is demeaning."

This is a sad state of affairs.

Number of pensioners going bankrupt rises by 700% in five years - Independent Online Edition > This Britain