Published on 12, July, 2020
Why do so many people have a sense of entitlement?
I was discussing this with a friend at the weekend and we couldn't really get to the bottom of it, other than perhaps it's just been a slow erosion of society and work ethic.
They don't work, but are entitled to (net) taxpayers money, so they can have things that taxpayers can't afford, to live in areas that those taxpayers can't afford, to have holidays, to not work a job they don't want to, to be entitled to an easy and well paid job. That they have "rights" that must be treated as gospel, but not any responsibilities that are tied to those rights. That rules are just for "someone else", a whole attitude that everyone else owes them a living etc.
What is the flawed mental process where people decide that they are entitled to things just because they want them? How can anyone even attempt to justify that "want" means "entitled"?
One word. Thatcher. She created it. Said 'Greed is good'. Said 'Let the rich get richer.' Introduced 'right to buy' for council tenants. It matters not if it was a Labour party idea. She introduced it for different reasons: personal enrichment. I'm now in my 60s, so can remember a time still when the post-war spirit of 'help each other out' was still there in society. The welfare state, brought in by the Attlee government in the late 1940s, was a good thing. It created a system in which those at the bottom of the ladder could be supported to help them through. It gave us a National Health Service, with health care free at the point of service for a national insurance contribution. It was a time when we were all pulling together for the common good. It was a time when we were all trying to look after one another.
Thatcher destroyed a lot of that. For her, it was every man and woman for themselves. She destroyed communities in the name of 'economic reform'. She created a society in which the over-riding ethos was 'look after yourself first.' The generations since then have grown up with the sense of entitlement of which you speak. 'I'm entitled to own my own home. I'm entitled to private healthcare. I'm entitled to look after myself, and sod the rest.'
People will be sold on the crap peddled by the right-wing media - that the sick and unemployed are the biggest drain on society. They'll believe crap TV programmes like 'Benefits Street', which portray benefit claimants as malingerers and scroungers, draining society - whereas the true culprits are those at the top, busting our banks but still taking huge bonuses because we're bailing them out, playing roulette with our savings, selling us [removed by moderator] and then blaming us for accepting it. Tax evaders and avoiders likewise. All they want is what's good for them - because they're somehow 'entitled'.
Turn your head around a bit and look at the agenda behind it all. Blame the unemployed. Blame the sick. Blame the immigrants. Keep your focus on blaming them. That way, the ones that are truly bleeding society can continue to get away with it.
[Edited by Ayshe Mod]
Typical MattBucks. Can't come up with a decent reply, so goes to the social media default of clicking 'Unlike'. 1st item on my bucket list. [ Removed by moderator]
He has the audacity to vote like for his own posts. There is a flaw in the forum software that enables users to do this.