Wouldn’t it be something if a slew of our elder citizens, those with more than enough money in their pockets, bank accounts and stashes, would demonstrate civic leadership and personal virtue by agreeing *not* to receive their Social Security checks. You know, to give the cash back.
Come on. We know you’re out there. You made plenty of money buying property back in the day. Perhaps you inherited some highly successful stocks your mama bought decades ago. Maybe you just lived in an era when a blue-collar job was enough income to support your family, own a home, vacation here and there, and sock away some money for retirement.
There’s a significant chunk of elder Social Security check recipients who will never have to pay for the low-cost (below-cost) natural resources they helped deplete: water, agricultural land, mineral resources and petroleum come to mind. There’s a number of SS check recipients who will never pay for the federal deficit that helped create a booming economy where they made their money in land, business or stocks. There’s a number of them that will receive pretty much endless health care when they paid a fraction into the system for what they get out of it.
And, golly, if they got enough in their pockets, wouldn’t it just be the nicest show of citizenship and good will toward their fellow (and younger) Americans to say, “No, thanks. I have enough.”
Maybe they could create a memorial wall, kinda like the stunning Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.. Maybe they could create a special fund with the money to help less-fortunate elder-folk in their generation. Maybe, bless their souls, they’d direct those extra funds to the younger generations who will – have no doubt about it – pay for their generous access to and economically unsustainable costs of national debt and natural resources.
Gee, that would be swell.
