Retiree discounts to end?
Before all of you foreign retirees jump to conclusions you better read the post. The headline is to get your attention because the government is not planning to end the discounts any time soon to my knowledge. An article in La Prensa about a 20% discount that will now be given to retirees for trash collection brought me to write this post that I am certain will get a lot of comments.
I believe discounts for foreign retirees are not healthy for the country and are not good for the image of the foreigner who resides here. I know this will bring a lot of flak from those who take advantage of the deals, but please hear me out.
When foreigners take advantage of the discounts for seniors they are really costing everyone else in the country to suffer by having to pay for the difference. Nothing is free and most products and services do not make a profit equal to the discounts businesses are forced to give. When you consider that most foreigners who are retired have significant incomes compared to a working Panamanian, it becomes obvious that something is wrong with this system. The law was originally put in place to help subsidize the elderly Panamanian who depend on a small government pension for subsistence. It was never intended as a deal for wealthy foreigners to take advantage of, but it is on the books and must apply to all, even the wealthy Panamanians who are just as guilty of making the poorer classes shoulder the burden of this subsidy.
Lets take Boquete for example, where many foreigners have retired. All of the restaurants are forced to raise their prices significantly in order to survive, because they most cater to the local retirees. Most restaurants are lucky to make 20%profit on a meal, but every foreigner with a pensionado card wants their 25% discount and then complains about how high the prices are getting. It also reflects on the Panamanian who cannot afford to eat in the restaurants because the prices are artificially inflated to subsidize the foreign senior. It also affects the foreign tourist who is having to pay more than they would normally because of this subsidy. This applies to every discount from airfare to pharmacy products. It is one of the reasons air fare to and from Panama is so much higher than other comparable Latin Countries.
The next time you eat in a restaurant in Panama consider what the waiter and other Panamanian workers think when you are perceived as being so wealthy and demand a 25% discount that they cannot ask for. Don't be surprised to see these subsidies to foreigners end in the not to distant future.
