The "Undeserving" Poor..........

[death dealer]

Not seeing how that relates to what I wrote. When I reference the entitlement mentality I reference people that are here now. I'd say it's developed over the last 90 to 100 years. Also, it isn't about being willing to work hard. Plenty of people who have the entitlement mentality are willing to work hard.

It's the idea that if you have a personal problem in terms of things like financial difficulty, a health problem that needs attention, lack of housing, not enough to eat, etc., you have are entitled to have government help you. You are entitled to have government forcibly take money from others in order to solve your problems for you.

All humans are born thinking the world owes them something. All free people feel entitled to the advantages they were born with and the riches available in their economic system whether they're rich or poor.

Ah, yes, but some will take advantage of those entitlements and parlay them into something more than the sum of their parts. Others will ride them downwards to the bottom, happy to feed on the flesh, but never willing to plant the seed under it.

What's makes one different from the other? Can you change this inherent nature, or is it just the way it is?

[kalm]

And you learned that didn't you? And you feel entitled to the advantages of what you were given and what you will earn...right?

"Entitlement" has become an overused pejorative. But it's still just a word.

You didn't build that, kalm. You didn't even design that.Barry Sortero created that golf course with TARP money.

Frankly...I expected more from an ivy leaguer.

[kalm]

All humans are born thinking the world owes them something. All free people feel entitled to the advantages they were born with and the riches available in their economic system whether they're rich or poor.

Ah, yes, but some will take advantage of those entitlements and parlay them into something more than the sum of their parts. Others will ride them downwards to the bottom, happy to feed on the flesh, but never willing to plant the seed under it.

What's makes one different from the other? Can you change this inherent nature, or is it just the way it is?

Now that's the kind of response I was hoping for.

Furman>Harvard.

In your face IT!

[Ivytalk]

Furman>Harvard?

in terms of the relative quality of the undergraduate education these days, you're probably right.

[citdog]

I read the whole thing and others have already alluded to one thing I was thinking:

To a large extent the people they described contributed to their own problems by virtue of their poor decisions.

Otherwise, I know you'll be shocked to read that I don't think anybody "deserves" assistance from others. Nobody is...or at least nobody should be..."entitled" to help. Help is something that should be freely offered on an individual by individual voluntary basis. It should not be compelled by government through taxation for funding poverty and/or entitlement programs.

It's a shame that we have this paradigm whereby if someone has a personal problem that automatically means there should be a government program for helping people with that problem. No. Charity is wonderful and it's a much better society if there if a lot of people have a charitable attitude. But it should be strictly voluntary. Government should not be involved in dispensing charity at all.

Too bad you live in a constitutional democratic republic where a majority of people don't agree with you.

Neither current events nor history show that the majority rule, or ever did rule.
President Jefferson Davis



I saw in States’ Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy…. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. -Lord Acton, in a letter to Robert E Lee right after the war


The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States … formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities. – John C. Calhoun

[kalm]

Too bad you live in a constitutional democratic republic where a majority of people don't agree with you.

Neither current events nor history show that the majority rule, or ever did rule.
President Jefferson Davis



I saw in States’ Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy…. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. -Lord Acton, in a letter to Robert E Lee right after the war


The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States … formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities. – John C. Calhoun

Red state voters like their entitlements too.