Privilege or Entitlement?

Question

It seems to me, that at some point in our nations history, we shifted from the "Land of Opportunity" to the "Land of Entitlement." All too often I hear folks complain that the government "owes" them, or the government should be "helping." This line of thought irks me.

I am going to throw this last part in, because I am concerned that this question might transition to some kind of racial or gender issue. Race or gender has nothing to do with my above thoughts. There are both women and men, white folks, african american folks, latino folks and on and on, who have have been proactive and acted as though America is a land of opportunity and made a great life for themselves. And there are all of the mentioned groups who have done the opposite; threw their lives away and yelled at the government for not helping.

(And please, I am aware that Hurricane Katrina was a debacle that didn't make this question easy to ask)

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

I couldn't agree with you more! You are absolutely correct!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I once had an elderly lady for a friend. She had a wonderful little dog. A mix of some sort. She had the dog trained well and it behaved very well. Learn here https://tr.im/Oy0xT

She kept an uncovered candy dish on her coffee table with candy in it. The dog was forbidden to eat the candy. When she was in the room observing the dog he did not even appear to notice the candy. One day while she was in her dinning room she happened to look in a mirror and could see her dog in the living room. He did not know he was being watched. For several minutes he was sitting in front of the candy bowl staring at the candy. Finally he reached in and took one. He placed it on the table and stared at it, he woofed at it. He stared some more, licked his chops and PUT IT BACK in the bowl and walked away. Did he want the candy, oh yeah. Did he eat it? Nope. They can be trained that well but most, I'll admit, are not trained that well. When I was a young boy, maybe 5 years old. We had a german shepherd. He was very well trained also. My mom could leave food unattended on the table, no problem. She would open the oven door and set a pan roast beef or roast chicken on the door to cool. No problem. He would not touch it, watched or not. But butter? Whole other story. You leave a stick of butter anywhere he could reach and it was gone. He was a large shepherd so there were not many places he could not reach. Really, I think the number of dogs trained to the point they will leave food alone when not being supervised is very small indeed.
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Now if we are talking obedience training, not food grubbing, that is a different story. Way back when I was first learning obedience training one of the final exercises was to put our dogs in a down/stay and not only leave the room but leave the building for 15 minutes. The only person that stayed was our trainer, not the owners. Most of the dogs in my class did not break their stay, which would be an automatic fail. I'm happy to report my dog was one of the ones that passed.

Answer 4

I think you are 100% right. There is a large group of people who collect way too much from the government, and keep expecting it to be handed out like candy on halloween. These people need to realize that these programs are meant to help you get your life back on track. Not for you to sit around, collecting a check or food stamps and then complaining that you have no money and have a crappy place to live. GET A JOB! HELP YOURSELF! Don't expect others to do it for you.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

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Answer 7

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Answer 8

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Answer 9

The major problem is that we have transformed from a country where people felt an obligation to help their neighbors to a country where people not only demand that the government help their neighbors, but help them as well.

Answer 10

The government owes no one anything. On the other hand, the government has no business meddling in its citizens' private lives.