A Culture of Entitlement

Things are very different for me than when my parents and grandparents were growing up. We have, over the years in our country, developed a culture of entitlement. We expect our government, funded by wage-earners' taxes, to provide personal financial benefits to large groups of ordinary citizens who meet eligibility conditions specified by law. Some important examples are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, most Veterans' Administration programs, federal employee and military retirement programs, and agricultural price support programs. Now we are hearing about corporate bailouts and health care for everyone.

Not that I oppose these! No way! My point is that we have learned to take for granted what our ancestors did without—and please don't read any other message into this. When our elders were old enough to retire, they usually did not. If they lost the farm because prices hit the bottom, that was very sad but unavoidable. When they grew really old and feeble, their family cared for them, and if there was no one, they went to the county poor farm. When they were sick or even dying but had no money, they did not ordinarily see a specialist of any kind; they just died.

It is easy in our present culture to depend on sources that we can regulate to some degree and therefore make the claim, "I am entitled . . . " We want insurance in the broadest sense, substituting it for the assurance which can come only through our reliance on God as our ultimate Source. We are just as likely then to attribute whatever security we enjoy to some apparent source: our income, our savings or investments, our insurance package, the government. "You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth . . ." (Deuteronomy 8:17, 18 NIV) "Look here, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.' How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, 'If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.' ” (James 4:13-15 NLT)

As children of God we are "entitled" to the benefits He gives—which are considerable! As for what we can depend on from strictly human sources, we mostly have to take what comes. Some of the personality disorders have as one of their symptoms an unrealistic, exaggerated, or rigidly held sense of entitlement. So we'll be mentally healthier if we don't get too carried away with the prevailing insistence on everything I can possibly get for myself with the least amount of effort. Rather, let's keep an attitude of gratitude!

MaryMartha

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.