Letter to the editor: Value hard work, not handouts

Dear President-elect Biden,

Would you consider giving up your salary to be put back in to help pay down the country’s debt? Maybe you could put it into that student loan forgiveness program.

I’m really curious about that. I believe that as an adult, when I run up debt, I’m accountable for it. When I do buy something at Starbucks or Dunkin’, I’m generally the one with a coupon, or looking at what’s on the dollar menu, sitting behind the young folks in a BMW or Mercedes ordering $7 drinks.

Most of us middle-age folks had to choose back-breaking jobs; we knew we couldn’t afford college debt for ourselves, let alone for our children, so we taught them the value of a dollar.

I recently heard on a TV roundtable that we should offer free tech training to reeducate people. Seriously, when we offered stimulus money people stayed home and shopped Amazon instead of getting a job at the Golden Arches or as a gas station attendant.

We need to value hard work, not handouts.

Cheryl Koloshinsky

Latrobe