I AM in complete agreement with Iain AD Mann (Letters, May 17) that the public is being sold a pup by the Government and its compliant media. Pensioners and the state pension are being deliberately maligned. True, state pensions with their “triple lock” have ensured that pensioners’ incomes have increased compared to that of younger generations but the real fault lies in the management of the economy that has created the situation where average earnings are in real terms reducing. That is not the fault of pensioners but that of the Government and the form of globalisation it espouses.
The country is continually bombarded with a narrative that pensions are some sort of government largesse rather than something we have already paid for. It would be an interesting exercise to calculate how much we pensioners would have amassed had our and our employers’ collective contributions been invested wisely rather than being used to fund the schools, hospitals and infrastructure our children and their children have benefited from before they themselves contributed anything to paying the bills. I’m sure I would have ended up with a pension greater than the pittance I currently get from the state which is actually less than I pay in tax from my occupational pension. Just like many pensioners who were fortunate and smart enough to plan for retirement we are still net contributors to the taxation system rather than being some pampered elite.
Perhaps if the media trumpeted with the same degree of conviction and regularity that they malign state pensions and pensioners the fact that the top one per cent of the country are witnessing an exponential increase in their collective wealth so called public opinion might change. Half the country is by definition of below average intelligence and it never fails to amaze me how they swallow this type of manipulative tripe and are blind to the real problem and the true culprit. I suppose if that wasn’t a fact of life we would not be allowed to have democracy.
David J Crawford,
Flat 3/3, 131 Shuna Street, Edinburgh.
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