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American son feeds off his mom
By Greg Cusack |
December 2, 2011, Friday
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DEAR Wang Yong,
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on children taking advantage of parents. (Shanghai Daily, November 26 "Parasite kids feed off parents in raging consumer society")
The barrage of advertising, coupled with the feeling that "I must have it," whatever the latest "it" is, is so much more powerful and omni-present than when I was a boy. And the impatience to have it NOW, such greed and no distinction between "want" and "need" is so destructive.
The most egregious example of youth robbing parents, however, occurred in my last years at Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS).
In 1999, just before the inflated markets exploded, I was contacted by a member who was no longer working but was eligible to begin her lifetime guaranteed benefits from IPERS in just a month or two.
If I recall correctly, her annual pension amount exceeded US$24,000. In any case, she asked me to refund her money so that her son - a self-described "brilliant investor," could use her money to make even more.
Her lump-sum refund to which she was entitled was a relative pittance, an amount which would be exceeded by her monthly pension checks in about seven years.
As the benefits officer responsible for her well being I did my best to let her know that there was "no way in hell" that her son could possibly make enough to even get close to her guaranteed pension. But she wouldn't Listen.
Over my protests, she signed the paperwork forcing me to adhere to her wishes. Within a couple of months the markets crashed (and have not really recovered since).
I think of her once in a while, wondering how she is doing, and suspecting that she is most likely struggling without any contributions form her son.
Greg Cusack, USA
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