Just like a metal detector, eligibility is strict
Eligible is a term that comes from the Late Latin word elegibĭlis . It is an adjective that allows you to qualify one or that thing that can be chosen .
Eligible for election
Something or someone eligible, therefore, is susceptible to election . This means that it is enabled or available for a selection .
For example: "By obtaining US citizenship, the striker is now eligible for the North American national team" , "The government announced that citizens eligible for income tax reimbursement will be those who do not have any type of debt with the treasury" , "The man convicted of the girl's brutal crime will be eligible for parole starting next year."
In the first example, we talk about a professional soccer player who, thanks to having acquired a new citizenship, can finally decide to be part of the team of his new nation. This is very common in any field that requires a specific nationality to obtain a benefit . The second sentence presents us with a government announcement specifying the conditions for receiving a refund.
In other words, people who meet the requirements detailed by the government will be eligible for said benefit; they will be the only ones who can be chosen for it. Finally, we have a case that could spark controversy, because it involves a man who was sentenced to prison for the murder of a minor and who will soon have the right to parole.
Legal capacity
The idea of eligible is usually used to refer to the individual who has the legal capacity to, within the framework of an electoral process, be elected. The condition of being eligible is known as eligibility , which is achieved by satisfying certain requirements or meeting different conditions that confer the aptitude to be chosen.
A person, on the other hand, may be eligible to access a benefit or aid . Take the case of the Medicaid program that the state of New York allocates to children and adolescents. Minors under 19 years of age residing in said state and according to their family's gross income are eligible for this program.
An adult, meanwhile, may be eligible for unemployment benefits when he or she does not have a formal job or receive income from a commercial or productive activity. If the beneficiary later finds employment, he or she immediately ceases to be eligible for this assistance .
In all the situations that we have presented as examples so far, and particularly in those that talk about legal issues, it can be seen that to be eligible it is necessary to meet a series of very specific requirements . It is not a subjective adjective, which each person can assign according to their own point of view, but rather an objective one, which emerges from a validation process that is the same for all subjects .
Obtaining citizenship can mean the difference between being eligible for a benefit and not being eligible.
Not be eligible
The modern world overwhelms us with endless trends, a way of communicating that was unthinkable at the end of the previous millennium and an increasingly radical change in moral issues, which lead us to have to be careful with our most innocent words for fear of hurting to others. As if all this were not stressful enough, there are added the economic, social and technological barriers that decide if we are "eligible", practically to exist.
It is not easy to accept that we do not meet the requirements for a work contract , or for a mortgage loan. But nowadays it is not necessary to talk about such important situations to face eligibility, since it appears in almost all areas, measuring our resources at every step to make us feel that "we have never arrived", that we always lack something to be a day.