The Untold Rebate Check Story

By EricMesa

- 2 minutes read - 401 words

As you know, unless you’ve been living under a rock, the US Government (USG) wants to give us all rebate checks to spur the economy along.  All you have to do is file your taxes and you’ll get up to $600 if you’re single or $1200 if you’re married.  What hasn’t really been publicized in the mainstream media, however, is the drastic measures the USG is willing to go to make sure you spend your rebate and to help the economy.

Ever since the story broke that the USG wanted us to spend our money on material goods, there have been many people appearing on the news saying that their real problem was that they had too much debt and they were going to use their rebate check to pay down their debt.  Unfortunately, if everyone did that responsible thing, it would make the rebate checks pointless as a way to help the economy.  Therefore Uncle Sam decided to help you out.

Our wonderful government has put people’s social security numbers into a computer program to figure out who is most likely to use this money to pay down debt.  Do you owe a lot on your house or credit cards?  Are you a student?  If so, you may be a bit surprised when you file your taxes this year.  According to a story that aired on National Public Radio (NPR), via American Public Media’s Marketplace, if you’re likely to use your money to pay down debt, the government will buy something for you and send it to you.  To a family in Arizona they sent an air conditioner.  Never mind that they may already have one or may not want to use one.  That’s what the good ole government has determined you should get.  People in the north may find themselves getting snow blowers.

I find the whole thing disgusting.  What do they know about what I want or need?  If they truly want to make sure that we can’t use the money to pay down debts, they could just send us Visa Gift cards.  That way we’d have to use it to buy things, but we’d be able to buy whatever we pleased.  If I wanted to buy computer parts or a DVD, I’d be able to do so, rather than be stuck with what some computer in DC says I need.

Sometimes this administration just pisses me off.