The growing issue of cheating...

Shameless! Cheating Is Now Mainstream in America

We expect people to cheat on their taxes, to cheat on freeway speed limits, to barge into line without challenge. We no longer feel surprised when people cheat in business, sports, in their personal life, and in politics.

Our elders wax poetic about the erosion of values in our nation compared to their youth. However, many older Americans don't think twice about impoverishing themselves to qualify for government funded programs. Is that cheating? I'll let you decide.

The following is an excerpt from an excellent article that appears in The Fiscal Times about this growing moral issue.

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For many, emotional well being deepens with age.

Think you are happy now? According to the Gallup-Healthways well-being index, best emotional times come later in life. I would certainly agree with this finding.

The oldest group outscored the other three age groups in emotions, which was one of six categories measured in a massive study on well-being. Out of a possible score of 100, the 65-and-older age group scored 83. Those 45-64 had the lowest score, 76.

Credit experience, says Kay McCurdy, 72, of Springfield, Va. “You shift your idea of what a good life is into what you can have as a good life,” says McCurdy. “You get realistic. "

Elisabeth Burnett, 73, a neighbor of McCurdy’s at the Greenspring retirement home in the Washington, D.C. metro area, says that having a strong emotional life takes a hefty dose of true grit. Burnett has a daughter going through a divorce and has had to bury another grown child, yet she says she looks ahead with hope and joy.

“Today is the gift,” says Burnett. “I think that’s a kind of wisdom that comes with age that I may have had as a young person but I didn’t exercise as much as I do now.” Randy Weadon, 84, says honesty and discipline turned his sad life around. After going into diabetic shock one night and nearly dying, he started walking, lost 50 pounds and eventually got off insulin. He walks 7 miles a day to keep his weight down.

“I’m happier,” says Weadon, also a Greenspring resident. “I have a better opinion of myself, and just all in all I’m a new person.”