I'll happily dispose of any filthy lucre that may have offended anyone's conscience or sensibilities.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
He didn't earn it, didn't ask for it, doesn't need it. Since he has yet to get a job or pay taxes, it can't even be considered a return of money he paid in.

This is all true, but irrelevant in today’s world. The question is who can put that money to better use for the benefit of society, your son or our government?

The commies are printing and pissing away money in an effort to make it go out of style. Your son ought to do something good with it, whether that is saving it, contributing to the cost of his education, donating it to a charity he believes in, or something else.

For goodness sake, whatever you do, don’t send it back to those criminals in DC.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
It isn’t local money.

It is ALL local money!!! Where do you think Feds get the money? I’ll tell you that it comes from one of two places*:

1) The government steals it directly from us with taxes,

or 2) The government prints it, thus devaluing the dollars that we hold, stealing from us indirectly.

*Inflation is sometimes called an invisible tax. It bumps us up tax brackets, destroys the value of our savings, and allows the government to pay off debts it has piled up with devalued dollars.

Our children need to learn to be good stewards of the resources that they have. Burning up “free money” sent by the government doesn’t seem to fit that bill.

Sure guys, take the $ and do with it what you wish. Dirty money with so many strings attached it is unbelievable. Go ahead, keep, put it in the bank, the college fund, give it to someone else, whatever. It is dirty $ plain and simple. Teach him a life lesson and it will pay dividends 1000 fold in his life time. Take the dirty $ and that is life lesson as well.

Put it in a Roth IRA or HSA for him, and toss it in an index fund, if y’all are already maxing those, good on you.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Sure guys, take the $ and do with it what you wish. Dirty money with so many strings attached it is unbelievable. Go ahead, keep, put it in the bank, the college fund, give it to someone else, whatever. It is dirty $ plain and simple. Teach him a life lesson and it will pay dividends 1000 fold in his life time. Take the dirty $ and that is life lesson as well.

"Strings?" Who can control him with this $500? In what way? This isn't like the Godfather, where Joe Biden is going to call him up some day and ask for a return favor. Money isn't dirty, although the motivations of those who have it or distribute it may be. Money is just a thing. Take this money and do some good with it. You know allowing it to remain in the school's bank account won't do any good.

You may as well ascribe the murder to the gun. They are just tools.

jh, would expect you to try to rationalize it. So no surprise there. Doesn't change my mind. The op asked a question and I have made my position known.

The same kind of analogy you made about tools could easily made about the things school kids and young adults get indoctrinated to in schools and universities that has a huge impact on how they see the world and our country.

And now the gov. is giving college kids a check. Yeah, there are strings. Good God.

I'm sure he has a checking account for gas, etc.

It's his; he can put it in there. I'd treat it the same as when the govy sent me stimulus checks. They paid bills. If I didn't have any at the time, they got partly saved and partly spent on something fun.

All this talk about where it came from blah blah is more trouble than it's worth for this amount. It makes a fun discussion, but nothing more.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
The woman on the phone had no clue where the government got the money,

Dumber than a bag of hammers.

Just stick it in an account for him somewhere. Invest it in an index fund. At 8% average rate of return over 50 years, compounding annually, it'll be worth $26246.90 when he retires.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
The woman on the phone had no clue where the government got the money,

Dumber than a bag of hammers.

Well, she works at the college...so that is to be expected.

I'm also in the camp of "dirty money" is not anything I want a part of. A part of your soul dies when you accept dirty "free" money. My integrity and ethics cannot be compromised, and I can't really participate in "let's go Brandon" type activities and counter-propaganda if I've accepted their dirty money.

I get why you guys are feeling that way.

But to burn it is ridiculous. It isnt dirty in that it's part yours, and rightfully. If you feel that adamant about the government spending your tax dollars this way, and rightfully so, then this is YOUR tax dollars.

Use it wisely but FFS don't throw it away.

If you don't want to keep it in the family, you can do some good with it, any number of places.

Animal shelter, kids in need of medical assistance, veterans in need, Salvation Army, the list is endless.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Just stick it in an account for him somewhere. Invest it in an index fund. At 8% average rate of return over 50 years, compounding annually, it'll be worth $26246.90 when he retires.

And at that point in time it should at least buy him a burger and fries.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Sure guys, take the $ and do with it what you wish. Dirty money with so many strings attached it is unbelievable. Go ahead, keep, put it in the bank, the college fund, give it to someone else, whatever. It is dirty $ plain and simple. Teach him a life lesson and it will pay dividends 1000 fold in his life time. Take the dirty $ and that is life lesson as well.

If you get an unexpected windfall, money you didn't expect, or earn, and give it to a charity where it can do some good....well that is a life lesson that would serve him well.

You could return it to it's rightful owners. Do a Karma for people who paid net income taxes last year and didn't get any COVID relief money.

Or, you can give it to someone here who is or was affected by job loss due to COVID. Use the money in the way that it was intended.

I don't consider it dirty money though. We're all on the same bus. If a group of people all vote to go to a steakhouse instead of going to a seafood place, you still get to order steak even if you voted for seafood. It's part of the social contract wherein you get to enjoy the benefits of government, whatever they may be, because we also must accept being governed. It's not like your son will get to opt out of paying taxes in the future, right?

Am I the only one who thinks it unusual that you have a 15-year-old in college?

flashguy

Good old fashion vote buying.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Am I the only one who thinks it unusual that you have a 15-year-old in college?

flashguy

Where I live our public school offerings have become so inadequate, and the students who attend so disruptive, that our local community college accepts middle and high school students in their courses. It's also because a whole generation of idiots 18-25 or so don't have a basic grasp of basic educational concepts, so these courses are offered all over again at the colleges.

My daughter has been attending classes at our community college since she was 14.

^^^Nailed it.