\You heartless sonuva..."" is a phrase I hear pretty often. Most of the time it is a result of telling the truth, and the truth for today is simple: We should let Grandma die. Don't get me wrong. I didn't say we should kill her. I said we should let her die, her and a few other senior citizens over 90, fewer than 2 million people.
This isn't just my idea. It's yours too. I mean, we hate taxes don't we? We all hate supporting those minor league nobodies who do ""nothing"" for society. We all want to get more and pay less. So the reason for sacrificing Grandma and assorted others is simple: money. In an economy with limited resources, we have to decide what those resources are to be used for. So let the tax cuts roll, let's spend more money then we have, and let's make sure everybody left alive has a college education. All it costs is a few old people to whom we don't pay attention anyway.
Generally speaking, the older an individual gets, the more health services he or she requires, health services that often come from government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. These programs cost money, and the older Grandma gets the more money she costs the taxpayers. Since we are simply helping to subsidize the way Grandma dies, why keep paying? Isn't this why we are cutting back medical benefits now, to cut our losses from the elderly and put it somewhere else? A few more of the tax breaks we love and that annoying problem will just be gone.
Maybe we could spend this money on better teachers' salaries, on subsidizing education to the point where private schools envy public or on raising the ability of our children to do well in math and science. After all, our manufacturing jobs are going overseas, so students won't be able to get very far without a good education. The gap between rich and poor might be breached with opportunities if we helped our populace learn. Even crime can be correlated in some aspects to a lack of education and educational opportunities. We could have utopia.
All this and more the politicians have promised us, but let's make certain we know who's getting promised what and why. The politicians will give us anything we want, but nothing is for free. We can get those years of college for ourselves and our children and a hundred thousand jobs from the Democrats, or afford to give tax breaks to rich folks via the Republicans. In the long run it will only cost us a few ""minor"" incidental things. Luckily for those of us who shall stay forever young, it only costs something as unimportant as Grandma.
Harlen L. Johnston is a third-year law student.
