Why do so many people think the government owes them something?

Question

Don't you realize if thats true they have all of the power?

Yet if you take charge of your own life and future, you have all of the power.

Why are people so quick to give up the power over their lives to someone else?

We live in a place where if you want something bad enough to work for it you can have it.
Kind of like the story of a person being held under water until they start thrashing to learn if they want something as bad as they wanted that air then nothing could stop them.

Answer 1

This question is as old as politics and government themselves. Even Samuel Clemons (AKA Mark Twain) lamented that what most people who feel the world owes them a living fail to realize is that the world was here first! Lately, it's gotten a lot worse. Health care being a great example. Ours is a capitalist based economy. So, if you choose to continue your education for another 8 years and then do another 4 years of on the job training, the people are now claiming you don't have the right (or privilege) to demand a higher fee (to cover your expenses and then a little...). But it's perfectly acceptable for them to demand a higher wage for a job that requires far less education and training. They either refuse to look at or acknowledge that based on the seniority and capitalist system, theirs is a failed argument. Is the system broke? No, only that their parents did not teach them by setting better examples or they weren't blessed with a greater brain capacity (IQ). It's so much easier to give up and blame the other guy than to have to accept responsibility for your actions or in-actions. Finally, there is the education system. It either grooms you for higher education or, indoctrinates you into a work force of unskilled labor. It does not teach you to actually think for yourself and to think outside the box -- to become an entrepreneur.

Answer 2

The government is a servant of the people, NOT the other way around. And the only way that we can have the power that you speak of is to immediately shut down the Federal Reserve, and take the power back from the corrupt bankers who are really running things....and have been running things ever since 1913 when they hijacked the control over our money supply. I agree with Justgoodfolks, and a few others who gave very enlightened answers...but you question is not very enlightened, I am afraid...because you don't understand that there are things going on behind the scenes that you have to really dig to find out about, because mainstream media will not tell you the truth. I am going to list the answerers that I agree with, because they deserve an extra reading. They make points that may not have occurred to you, or points that you may have never been informed about.

I like Darth Vadar's answer..especially the second sentence.

I like fart_pit... 's answer, because there actually is more welfare and gifts given to the richest corporation, and it is obscene how the conservatives who complain about helping the poor, either ignore corporate welfare, or think it is perfectly okay.

I completely agree with David R., and with m, and braz50 as well.

I also totally agree with Lindsey G., and with Trout!!!!

The money that they are throwing away in Iraq would feed and shelter every person in this world...and that is just one example. As long as what Ike called the military industrial complex, and can be called by many other names, is still running things, the playing field will never be equal for all. I am begging you to open your mind and do some indepth research. But, first you have to be willing to admit that there really are some things that you do not understand about the things that are being done behind the scenes. I am not saying that I know all of what is going on, but I am always reading more articles and watching more videos, and trying to learn. It is a matter of self defense. And the very least that the government owes us all, is honesty and openness, and integrity, and respect for all people and all other living things as God's children. We are all one, LITERALLY, with both God and with each other. There is no such thing as separation! Separation is an illusion. And we are all supposed to take care of each other and share with each other and cooperate with each other. But, when some are hoarding and others are starving, when there is more than enough for everyone to have at least their basic needs met, and live with a reasonable level of dignity, then something is seriously wrong in this world. *sm*

Answer 3

Because that is what they have been taught and now that is all most want to hear. We live in a gimme gimme society today and also one that supports the gimme gimme group with welfare and hand outs for votes with favoritism in government employment and human resources benefits.
This also helps explain why government employee theft of tax payer money is at it's highest ever and growing.

Take the hand outs away from a certain group of people and they would be completely lost. Even though these people are very capable of working and possibly achieving based on their own merit instead they use the tools they have developed to get more and make those in power to give more with a demand that they are due it.

In other words they have learned how to work the system and they have friends in the system that support their gimme gimme gimme.

Answer 4

Not all people can help themselves.
What would you do if you were....
Injured, sick, mentally ill or homeless?
Say you grew up in a poor family, you turn 18 but you have asthma so you can't join the army, you were smart in high school but not brilliant so you didn't get a scholarship and your parents cannot pay for you to go to college because you are poor. Now you don't have a job to pay for college because you don't have any skills, you don't have any skills because you don't have education you don't have education because you don't have any money, you don't have any money because you don't have a job you have a job because you don't have any skills. So you end up with a low paying job. You get married and then accidentally, kids come into the picture. Neither you nor your wife believe in abortion so you have the baby. Now you have a baby to pay for. Your wife immidiately starts working again when the baby is 6 weeks old to get back to work to make some money again. Now you have all of these expenses: rent, water, your food, baby food, diapers, crib and other furniture, things to baby proof the house, blankets, baby clothes and shoes, bibs,wipes, your clothes and shoes, gas, heat, car insurance and repairs, health insurance, medical bills, electricity, cell phone bill, day care, credit card bill. You are your wife are both working full time but you still cannot make ends meet. You don't have neither the time nor the money to go to school. Most people receiving aid from the government do not want it...they NEED it to survive.

Answer 5

Because when you look to a government that isn't dominated by corporate greed, you can see how they actually work to benefit the people.

Healthcare, education, quality of life are all better throughout Europe, yet people in those countries work, work hard, and still have leisure time.

Do you drive on roads? Have you attended public schools? Do you go out and contract a private police force to protect your neighborhood? No you don't. Same logic.

*EDIT*

Oh and Jeff, by the way, in another post you wrote about how at 23 you weren't making enough money so you went into the Navy to learn electronics. Did you enjoy your taxpayer subsidized education and training? Sure does not sound like someone working for themselves.

Answer 6

The fact of the matter is the government does owe me something

Who else recieves more of my money than the government and yes I expect service and value for the money I so graciously give them


The tax payer feeds and cloths it's servants in a manner most of us will never see in our own lives - Pretty damm nice of us the people

So yes the government owes me - not only that but we own them out right - That was part of the deal when they recieved tax money as a wage -

They owe all of us a big sh-t eating grin and a yes sir with value for our money services we tell them to spend our money on and a straight answer when we call on them

Wake up - who else gets paid and doesn't owe the person(s) who paid them somthing in return

Answer 7

Everyone thinks the government owes them something and they are right too. When your car is stolen do you go to the police or do you track down the thieves yourself? When your house is on fire do you call the fire department? When nine eleven happened did you expect the US army to bring justice to the folks behind it or did you plan to track down Osama yourself?

There is a difference of opinion what services should be best left to the private sector and what services are best done publicly with the left clearly leaning towards public health care and education but everyone expects something of the government at some point. The debate is about what services and goods should be public.

Anarchists are the only ones who advocate no government

Answer 8

basic human dignity. Air, water, food, clothing, safeguard, coaching, well-being care and of undertaking at a feeling of purpose, the thank you to make a contribution to the greater effective society. there is not any stable reason each and every individual, everywhere could be starving to dying, or for the richest 10% of the worlds' inhabitants to very own 80 5% of the worlds' wealth on a similar time as the backside 50% very own a million%. no one is worth that particularly greater effective than yet yet another, particularly because of certainty the oftentimes occurring standards for gathering super parts of wealth are greed, ruthlessness, violence and a complete loss of compassion. international, human over inhabitants and unsustainable reproduction and source intake expenses would desire to would desire to desire to be addressed before each and every human on the earth would desire to desire to stay comfortably, yet before we, as a species, would desire to desire to cope with those subject concerns the international plutocracy, capitalism and our present day-day, dark an prolonged time international economic gadget could be greater desirable down and the worlds' wealth allotted plenty greater desirable equitably between each and every individual.

Answer 9

Would you like to give us an example, or will it be the usual empty pontification of the conservative blowhard?

You boys think you're holy because you've got a job. Guess what? We all have to work -- except the coddled babies of large inheritances who control one political party. Your guess as to which.

Funny thing how the liberals put more of their kids in harm's way -- and how a liberal President asked not what your country can do for you, etc.

In short, blow it out of the orifice with which you better express yourself, Foolosopher.

Answer 10

Because the liberals keep telling them that the government should do everything for them. Liberals want bigger and bigger government so they can control every aspect of a citizens life. Like universal health care.