Stimulate the Youth

Stimulate the Youth

OP/ED

Signed into action on March 27, 2020, the CARES Act allowed eligible adults a chance at some economic relief at the start of the pandemic. Now, just over a year later, some adults and nearly all minors have yet to benefit from the multiple rounds of stimulus checks since. This needs to change.

Nearly every high school senior I know has a job of some sort, whether it be to pay off their incoming college tuition, or just to pay for gas for the next week or so. These students are incredibly hardworking, and strive to earn, rather than receive, their paychecks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 46.7% of high schoolers across the nation have a job of some kind.

It is important that our hard working youth gets their portion of the package. Who else but us delivers your pizzas, makes your food at McDonald’s, and takes care of your parents at nursing homes?

Now, of course, I believe there should be some guidelines to who can and can’t get some free government moolah. It’s ultimately up to students to file their own taxes to get the check.

According to Forbes, “eligible taxpayers and their dependents of all ages, not just those under 17, will receive $1,400 stimulus checks.”

That change has not happened, or else I wouldn’t be writing this.

Forbes claims that 15 million older children and dependents were left without their stub of economic relief. That’s 2.1 billion dollars that could be shifted away from other countries’ militaries. Why do we create a 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus bill for our nation’s economic prosperity, and then send hundreds of billions of dollars to other countries instead?

We should be ashamed of our country for not stepping up to the plate and funding our youth’s future. After all, we’re going to be the ones running this country here soon.