Just when you didn’t think that the politicians could find a way to steal more from my generation to give to my grandparents’ generation, President Obama announces a $250 payment to all Social Security beneficiaries next year to make up for no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Why is there no cost-of-living adjustment, because there wasn’t any inflation, the requirement for COLA. Moreover, I didn’t get a pay raise at my job, and I work weekly.
I guess the politicians think that my grandparents are easy to bribe. They keep throwing more and more money at them. I guess my grandparents haven’t really thought about my future or what’s best for me because they keep taking the money and voting for the politicians that provide it for them. So what’s another $13-billion among friends? I suppose not much when you consider that my grandparents and their politicians have stuck me with over $38,778 of debt and I’m not even out of high school yet.
They talk about the “greatest generation” that sacrificed through the depression and in World War II to create this great country. I don’t get it. That generation has lived richer with more benefits and free time then any generation in the history of the world. It appears that my friends and I are picking up their tab; and they didn’t even leave the tip.
Even The Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY wrote opinion pieces today entitled “Cash for Oldsters” and “Pandering to Social Security Crowd Sacrifices Responsibility”, respectively. Everyone seems to notice that this is unjust and yet the politicians continue to dole out our money to our grandparents to “buy” their votes.
The tradition and greatness of America is that each generation left the country better for the next. Now, what has been called “the greatest generation” is leaving for my generation a cynical and bankrupted country. It makes you wonder who is calling them “the greatest generation” and how can we take anything they say seriously?
Elia Porter, 17, Senior Ponte Vedra High