Dear Editor: Deserved or Undeserved

Dear Editor,

It’s no big secret; I, along with quite a few others in this part of the country, to say nothing of a growing number around this ‘great’ nation, make a living, to put it rather crudely, ‘sucking off the government tit’. Quite a vivid picture, maybe, but the meaning is clear. ‘Yes, there are those who, probably undeservedly ( more or less ), ‘milk’ the system, while others, arguably, like myself, do ‘deserve’ it.’ The question might well be asked, though, ‘Is it REALLY a matter of who deserves it or not?!’

One objection you may have heard to these monthly ‘benefits’ (SSI or SSDI) is that we are stealing from the next generation (like candy from a baby?) They might seem to have a good point, but this assumes that it is actually ‘money’, we’re dealing with. I’m no great historian or financial whiz kid, but isn’t money supposed to be backed by something of greater value? In essence, aren’t these paper ‘notes’ & coins supposed to represent a store of precious metals? As the case may be, we have attached value, as a nation, to the notes themselves, even though they’re only representative of & in a very real sense, equal to, ‘digits on a computer screen’!

To get to the point, though there are those who would endeavor to install guilt & fear through their accusations, we should ‘note’ that, in this false economy, these ‘benefits’, whether ‘deserved’ or ‘undeserved’, whether SSI, SSDI, or these so-called ‘stimulus checks’, should be the least of our worries, where future generations are concerned. I, for one, do not feel guilty about accepting this hand-out, which, in the right hands, can function as a ‘hand-up’. Thank you for listening.

Charles Haddon Shank

Whitehall, Montana