Spoiled Brats!: America’s Entitlement Problem
With all the news about the economy today, one little paragraph has stood out in my mind. Here is an excerpt from a New York Times article about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
Even after accounting scandals arose at the two companies a few years ago, attempts to push through stronger oversight were stymied because few politicians, particularly Democrats, wanted to be perceived as hindering the American dream of homeownership for the masses.
The part here that irks me is “hindering the American dream of homeownership for the masses.” RIGHT HERE THERE IS A PROBLEM. That problem is this sense of entitlement that every American deserves their own house when they want it. NO! Just because you are American and just because you work hard, does not mean that you should go out and get a shady loan to pay for a house you otherwise couldn’t afford. If a reputable bank does not think it wise to lend you that much money, you probably shouldn’t be borrowing that much money. The fact that there was a government agency allowing banks to lend out more money than they should thereby increasing the chances that it could all fall apart is ludicrously irresponsible.
I do believe democracy can work, but only if the citizens of that democracy are responsible. At this point in our history, Americans have shown themselves to be selfish, ignorant, materialistic, self-indulgent children whose divorced parents (the partisan leaders of our country) cater to their every desire so that their kids will choose one over the other. We are not unified. The individualism of this nation is ripping itself apart.
We need to work together, conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican, Corporate CEO and low-level employee, in order to fix ourselves. We need to start thinking about the big picture and not what is best for our own faction. We need to think about how environmental pollution affects us all, even if it isn’t easy to see its influence on our daily life. We need to see that every decision we make as individuals will impact someone and that everything we do, we do as a nation. What I am asking for is for our elected representatives to sit at a table, without grandstanding, to find solutions that are best for everyone.
There will have to be compromise, but debating these things in the press is detrimental to any solution you can come up with. Media spin, punditry, and news as entertainment is ruining the foundations of our nation and I would ask corporate media to have some dignity and see that while what they are doing is making them money, it is hurting them because its hurting the nation.
I’ll end with this clip from “A Beautiful Mind”
Amen.
ditto
yep. well put.
“Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.”
(Edwin Hubbel Chapin)
No matter how small or seemingly insignificant the action is – it will resonate down through the ages and someone will suffer the consequences of that action. We would do well – as a society – to start considering that and act accordingly. Our Native American forefathers were wise beyond words……
“Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
(Chief Seattle)
AMEN!
Ironically, I received this as an email this morning. I’m not confident that Bill Gates actually said this, but the contents remain valid despite the source!
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up,it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
BUT THATS WHAT MAKES US AMERRRICAN! that even when we can’t afford things we need to have it. I just don’t understand the way people think sometimes. Theres something called delayed gratification and people these days just can’t accept that, and go out and spend money they don’t have or can’t afford to pay back.
interesting
Unfortunately Toby,
Thats old news. Ironically enough, my high school principal quoted Bill Gates on the same when i graduated. My memory may be faulty but I am fairly sure its word for word.
Great blog… very insightful!
Well written. Agreed. Entitlement mentality is continuing to ruin this once great nation. When our nation ran out of statesmen (principled men) and started electing partisan politicians (those who’ll give them what they’re “entitled to” or make available to them the biggest nipple on the dog), it started us on the downward slope of national decline. Only an others mentality, rebirthed,will turn this nation around.
I loved your “divorced parents” analogy. However, “wise” divorced parents do what they do for the betterment of their kids, since they already know they’re screwed up their own lives. I think that’s a stretch to expect this from the current crop of partisan, self-serving policitians on both sides of the aisle.
Give us a new breed of men in leadership: principled, disciplined, daring and character-based (yes, Clinton’s and any other Democrat or Republican’s sexual immorality does matter!)
A man cannot think right when he lives wrong.
Honestly, I’m getting tired of everyone taking a swipe at Americans. There are plenty of hardworking, decent, bill-paying Americans who resemble little of what you’ve just mentioned. But of course they don’t make interesting news stories or blog posts.
Also, I think it’s important to make a distinction between the words “dream” and “entitlement”. I feel as strongly as you do about people thinking they deserve whatever they want, but that’s not the message of the newsclip you quoted.
If you read between the lines, that is the message of the article. Politicians did not make the unpopular decision to curb the power of the lending institutions, resulting in people taking out loans they could not really afford to pay back. The materialistic American Dream has resulted in everyone thinking that because they are American and they work hard they can own a home when exactly they want it, regardless of whether or not they SHOULD go out and get it.
I’m also well aware of the hardworking decent Americans present in this country. My parents are some of them. I’m interviewing a woman today who works with Somali refugees. I encounter them every day, but considering they don’t piss me off, I’m not going to write a rant about them. Not because I’m not interested in them, but they just don’t make me angry like people who drive Hummers and take out loans they can’t pay back.