[Final Draft] Should Subway Freeriding of the Elderly be Abolished?

The uprising issue nowadays is ‘Should subway freeriding of the elderly be abolished?’ Subway freeriding for the elderly is a welfare policy that letting people whose age is over 65 to get free subway rides. As I am one of subway users, I thought about this issue. My opinion about this question is that the freeriding for the elderly should be abolished.

Reasons for my opinion are three. First, financial loss caused by the elderly freeriding is increasing every year. Seoul Metro and Seoul City said, “From 2010 to 2015, about 50 billion won was lost from the freeriding.”, and they also mentioned that the elderly freeriding takes 65% of all freeriding types. Considering that Korea will be aged society with 24.3% of the elderly, financial loss will continue and grow. Seoul City also said that, “The reason of the 65% of the loss comes from the elderly freeriding.”

           Second, the loss from maintaining senior discount policy is filled up by raising fee. Raising fee becomes a distress to the young, who actively take subways. For example, I take a subway to go to school, and it charges me about 100,000 won per month. Since I pay transportation expenses, this becomes a lot of burden to me. Seoul City, however, announced that they will increase 200 won of the subway fee in 2017, making it 1450 won. Increasing fee will also increase the young’s spending, which will be very stressful.

           Third, Senior Pass Card can be used by other people who are not seniors. Senior Pass Card is provided to people who are subjects of freeriding. Though the card is for the elderly, Seoul Metro said that they caught 195,749 not-senior people using this card. Seoul Metro also said that, “Accumulated illegal rides can effect on increasing fee.”

          Financial loss, increasing fee, and unauthorized usage of senior pass card are reasons of my opinion; the elderly freeriding should be abolished. It looks like all my three reasons are actually telling that the elderly freeriding is causing financial problems. To stop the problem, it would be nice to abolish the freeriding of the elderly. If it is hard to abolish this policy, I think government should draw up some suggestions to resolve the financial issues caused by the elderly freeriding.

 

 

References

[기획] 65세 이상 지하철 경로우대 이대로 좋은가? (2015, November 25). Retrieved November 27, 2015, from http://www.segye.com/content/html/2015/11/25/20151125002371.html?OutUrl=naver

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