groups are looking simply at the bottom line. They see everything with a cost plus mentality. They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Unfortunately there is a school of thought among some policy analysts and Treasury advisers in this category. They look for fiscal scapegoats. They identify what they see as the non-productive sectors of society so they can isolate and target them. This is a value judgement based on numbers and theoretical models -- without any logic or sense of social responsibility. They see senior citizens as a burden on the tax dollar. They see senior citizens as a cost in terms of superannuation, aged care, health issues and Pharmac bills. They do not see senior citizens as people who have made a big contribution and continue to do so as long as their health allows. Let's face it, there is an army of volunteers out there working in all sorts of ways to keep communities functioning. Many of these community volunteers are senior citizens. So the analysts and advisers who target the elderly do not understand how communities function. They look for simple solutions to their perceived problems -- like making people work longer, reducing superannuation rates, and privatising the system as much as possible. These people are scattered throughout the system and they peddle their views at every opportunity. If you think of New Zealand's most out of touch pensioner -- Don Brash -- and multiply that by a few hundred -- you