Different types of sacrifices can solve the entitlement crisis. How about an ättestupa?

Sir, Peter Peterson concludes his “Sacrifice can solve the entitlement crisis” March 20, by citing the German theologian Dietrich on the ultimate test in moral society being the world it leaves for the children, and saying that “It is time for us to become worthy and moral ancestors.”

 

To a baby boomer like me, that sounds indeed like a gloriously grand-eloquent reason for giving up some entitlements, but I have to confess though that, back in my mind, also lies the real possibility that if we don’t give something up, perhaps even quite a lot, the children will one day tell us, “it is time for you, worthy and moral ancestors, to start thinking about an ättestupa” by which they would mean those very high cliffs where supposedly the old Scandinavians, in time of the Vikings, threw themselves from, when they became a burden to society.