Entitlement mentality

doobnVA said:

Nope. I know exactly what a libertarian is, thank you.

There are different schools of libertarianism. What we have here in the US are Libertarian conservatives. In essence, they are what the fiscal and social conservatives USED to be, before they swallowed the crazy pill that sent a great number of self-described "republicans" running for their lives. The only real differences between libertarians and social conservative counterparts is they typically favor gay rights, drug law reform, and aren't as anti-abortion as the social conservatives.

Every developed nation on earth has taxes, dude. If you don't like it, I think there's a shuttle on its way to the moon this evening.

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Rob Roy said:

Hate to burst your bubble but some of my friends are among the very first Libertarians, not this new wave of pseudo, me too "Libertarians".

Your description of a libertarian should include a reference to the non aggression principle. Alot of people neglect this vital part when thinking they are libertarian or when they think they know what libertarianism is.
Libertarians do not endorse using force pre-emptively like conservatives and liberals do to make others comply with their wishes. You espouse a good deal of what I consider feel good Liberal stuff, but you really endorse using the force of government to MAKE others comply. I believe that's the wrong approach to achieve freedom.

Concerning taxes, yes they are omnipresent, that doesn't make them just. If I don't like something I'll choose not to participate, while respecting your right to do the same. I guess that philosophy is one you have a problem with? Respecting another beings right not to participate is vital to freedom. Are you saying the only freedom to do that would be out of this world?

Would that shuttle to the moon be funded with taxes extracted involuntarily ? Besides, I wouldn't dream of making you pay for my trip to the moon either.



Can't go to the moon

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doobnVA said:

There's no "force". I don't know where you get this notion.

If you want to be part of society, you pay taxes. Don't want to pay? Okay, go to jail. It's pretty fucking simple.

Nobody is FORCING you to pay, but the alternative to paying is being cut off from society. Them's the rules.

You're free to make your own choice in the matter. Nobody is putting a gun to your head to make you pay taxes. You aren't that important.

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RickWhite said:

It seems these days that more and more people are developing an entitlement mentality never before seen in the US. I was wondering why when so many before them have worked so hard and have scrimped and saved their entire lives to give their children a better life, so many these days feel so entitled.

The best answer I can think of comes from the notion that when people are used to having something and then that something is cut off, people tend to go ape shit, for lack of a better term. For example, if you give a child a toy and take it away the child will through a tantrum. But, if the child never had the toy to begin with it is a different story.

Now consider that our parents generation was the most prosperous in history and we are the first generation that can plan to earn less than their parents. Combine the two and you have a perfect recipe for this type of thinking. Now, as never before we have children raised with a relatively high standard of living growing up and having to make a downward move when they leave home.

The problem with an entitlement mentality is that it makes a person particularly unattractive to prospective employers. This is because people with entitlement mentalities tend to see life as a deck staked against them. They feel that life is unfair, everyone else is responsible for their adversity and that others, including their employers, are taking advantage of them.

In short, people with an inflated sense of entitlement are pre-disgruntled employees. Ask any employer and they will tell you that one of the single most damaging thing to their business is a disgruntled employee. One of the worst things about a DE is that they are highly effective in spreading their poor employee moral to other employees causing a substantial loss of production, poor attendance and perhaps worst of all employee theft. In fact, employee moral is the single largest determinant of employee theft. When an employee feels he is treated unfairly, its time to keep an extra vigilant eye on that employee as theft becomes much more likely. Often people who steal like to rationalize their actions and being "taken advantage of" makes for a great rationalization. Now that I think about it, the whole concept of the unfair society created by the evils of Capitalism is largely such a rationalization only of collective theft rather than theft on an individual level.

When broken down, it should be easy to see how having an entitlement mentality is antithetical toward finding more lucrative employment. Perhaps it is this and not "society" that is mainly responsible for the adversity of many people. Perhaps if people would lose this toxic way of thinking and develop a better attitude towards life and the marketplace of skills people would find their situations improving.

As an employer I have seen employees come and go and one lesson I have learned is that people are where they are in life for a reason. Those with a strong work ethic and a good attitude tend to go far where as those with poor attitudes who feel that the world owes them a living tend to go nowhere. The former make for great employees, they bring value to my business and therefore wind up earning more, the latter are to be avoided like the plague.

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jeff f said:

i currently live in a town of about 12,000 where 55% of people are on some kind of assistance. that statistic is from the public school in town and is tracked for reimbersment from different govt entities. i am a business man and several of my friends have businesses from contracting, pizza shop, trash collection and several others.

i know, i know...get to the point! the unemployement rate for my county is currently 10.2% which is way way low balled because of the folks getting assistance. they dont look for work. realistically our unemployment rate is around 25-30%. anyway, my point. whenever any of the community business's need workers, they have a hard time finding someone to fill the position. a recent job opening was posted at the public school for 2 maintenance persons, experience prefered but not required, for a very competetive wage. there were 6 applicants. 6!! you would have thought that there should be 500 people lined up around the corner to apply for these jobs but when you throw in welfare, ssi, workmens comp, wic, 93 weeks of unemployment (fill in additional govt handouts in this space)...why would someone want to get out of bed and have to actually do something.

handouts are killing our inner cities. it has basically destroyed the black family in urban america. i recently read a statistic that said the black poverty rate is higher now in inner cities than it was pre 1964 great society days. that should startle people. libs think they are helping people, but they are killing motivation. i am all for lending a helping hand to those who need it, but the state of our govt handout programs is quickly killing the entreprenurial spirit that makes free people so productive. instead of people being slaves to the slave owner, they are slaves to the govt. this isnt rocket science. we have centuries of historical case studies but politicians refuse to see it. i hope things change back, but i dont see the political gumpshin to start taking handouts away.

the old saying holds true, if you want more of something, subsidize it.

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Rob Roy said:

A question or two for you.

When a person harms nobody, takes nothing from anybody should they be left alone by other individuals? By government? My answer to both questions is emphatically yes. What is your answer? Are you a proponent of freedom or control?

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Babs34 said:

This all goes back to what was earlier quoted by Green Cross--" give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime"
"These people" are taught NOTHING. They are given little, if any, opportunity to make something of themselves.
They are taught to cling to the safety net that the government offers them......they are TRULY TRAPPED.
There positively is a way to get people out of subsidized living. Rather than make it feasible, the gov't is content with paying for living a miserable existence for a lifetime.
People don't understand that most often, these people are not living this way because it's easy....it's ALL THEY KNOW. And because of that, it's all their children and future generations are ever acquainted with.

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doobnVA said:

You're self-absorbed, self-important, and condescending to anyone who doesn't share your very narrow set of beliefs.

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Radiate said:

"It's all they know" is a very flimsy excuse. It's their damn fault they continue to live these meager lives. These people aren't trapped. This isn't America circa the 1700's, where it was illegal for the slaves to educate themselves. Public libraries are in every city. The government provides loans for the financially challenged to go to college, and you don't even have to pay some of them back. Knowledge is not kept secret from anyone, but the book isn't going to magically open up and beam knowledge into your fucking brain, you actually have to put forth some effort and read it.

"give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime" is really not the correct saying to describe this situation. In the real world, it's more like "If the man wants to eat fish he better get off his ass and TEACH HIMSELF how to fish". After all, you can't expect a teacher to be there to hold your hand all the time. To expect such is an entitlement mentality.

Personal responsibility: it's so rare we should back our currency on it.

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CrackerJax said:

Babs, he's not exactly wrong....

No society on earth has an upward mobility like that of the USA. You can be born a pauper in the US and die a billionaire. That doesn't happen anywhere else.
One of the reasons why so many foreigners are knocking on our doors. It isn't for the cheeseburgers.
What helps keep ppl down are the "good intentions" of social programs.

Wanna stay poor? Get on welfare. That will increase ur odds of a failed life greatly. But they will vote for the politicians who give them the "free", but meager existence.

These politicians trade lives for votes.

Education is up to the individual, no one else. No one else.

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redivider said:

true that CJ, but unregulated capitalism allows for crooks in suits to steal and cheat with no real consequences for their actions.

and while there are foreigners looking to come to america to find their dream, there's also american companies looking to foreign talent to meet their needs. there's about 150 Indians (hindu indians) where I live... they've all been recruited by an american company to come to work here. ALL RECRUITED FROM THEIR HOME COUNTRY. i would tax the shit out of that company, for trying to save money on salary by importing workers. this is not a international exchange student program with one or two volunteers, these companies are recruiting foreign talent by the thousands, with no real incentive to stop.... that's f-ed up...

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