| In this article we are going to look at how entitlement | | | | was there. |
| works globally and see the reasons behind our bank | | | | While most people would shrug their shoulders and not |
| failures, our pension failures, our financial institutions and | | | | do anything about it because they didn't have to pay |
| then we'll bring it into a very personal level of how our | | | | for it out of their own pocket, this man called his |
| attitudes of entitlement are bringing failures into our | | | | insurance company and reported the fraud. He then |
| own lives. We'll look at ways to reverse this. We'll look | | | | called this doctor friend of his and told him that if he |
| at the issue of why our attitudes of entitlement are a | | | | didn't call the insurance company and rectify his |
| luxury that we can no longer afford. | | | | mistake, he was going to contact the media and start |
| In the old days, on a global level, our standard of living | | | | an investigation. They lived in a small town and the |
| was much lower. Our cars were basic, our | | | | doctor realised that he would be forced out of |
| entertainment was much less costly and in most | | | | business if he didn't drop the charges, which is probably |
| economies around the world, families were able to | | | | the only reason he eventually notified the insurance |
| make it on one income. | | | | company that he was dropping those charges. |
| Over the years, as our standard of living rose higher | | | | The entitlement issues we face today can be traced |
| and higher, it now takes two incomes just to survive. | | | | back to the low standards we set for our children. The |
| Instead of using one car for the family, now we see | | | | bar needs to be set higher, much higher. We are |
| two cars or more for the family. Instead of just going | | | | raising children who reach adulthood as grasping |
| to a movie and some place inexpensive for dinner for | | | | individuals taking whatever they can from whomever |
| a special night out - now we have very expensive | | | | they wish without stopping to question their actions. |
| forms of entertainment. | | | | I recently heard of a widow in her late 50's who sold |
| In the old days, when we had a much lower standard | | | | the farm that she and her husband had owned for all |
| of living people actually sat around in the evening and | | | | of their marriage. She moved to a smaller place and |
| talked to one another. They even read books. They | | | | planned on using the profits from the sale as her |
| listened to the radio and used their imagination to | | | | retirement income. Her children were so angry that |
| recreate the scenes in their heads. If you had a | | | | they even refused to speak to her. They felt that the |
| telephone, it was a luxury. People made appointments | | | | money from the sale was their inheritance and it |
| to see one another, they didn't sit on the phone for | | | | should go to them. What kind of distorted thinking is |
| hours on end. Nowadays, there's very little personal | | | | that? She and her husband had worked the farm, had |
| interaction. People sit on cellphones, they do text | | | | put in their life's energy in that farm and she had every |
| messaging, they sit on their computers, they do instant | | | | right to sell it and do whatever she wished with the |
| messaging, emails or messageboards - and social | | | | money she received from it. Her adult children were |
| interaction has become a thing of the past. | | | | living their own lives, earning their own money, and not |
| We are now leading very insular lives and the end | | | | supporting her. They weren't entitled to one cent, yet |
| result is that we have more cases of depression, | | | | they are trying to make her feel guilty for taking what |
| especially among teenagers and young adults. We see | | | | she so rightfully earned. |
| more people today on anti-depressants than any other | | | | In the US, they have been conducting surveys among |
| time in the history of mankind. This is more than just | | | | middle management to upper-management employees |
| being dissatisfied with your lot in life. It has more to do | | | | who were laid off when their company's downsized. |
| with feeling a lack of purpose in your life. Having family | | | | There seems to be a growing trend among these |
| and friends around you to share the good times and | | | | people to try for a few months to find other |
| the bad times. This is about being able to live your life | | | | employment, but then shortly afterwards, they give up |
| without having a single person in your life. Anything and | | | | and stop looking because they cannot find a job that |
| everything that you can possibly want or need can be | | | | pays the same kind of money. What we see |
| purchased online. You don't ever have to leave your | | | | happening to these people - they empty out their |
| house. In so many different ways we can see the | | | | retirement funds, their pensions, their savings accounts, |
| breakdown of the family and of the community | | | | their family's savings accounts, and mortgage their |
| coinciding with the breakdown of the economy. | | | | houses to the hilt. They have decided not to look for a |
| The higher standard of living that we've grown | | | | job. If they cannot get the kind of money that they had |
| accustomed to isn't really about buying toilet paper in | | | | been making, they are choosing to go on |
| different colours, but it's actually separating ourselves | | | | unemployment for however long it lasts and to live off |
| from the family unit. Instead of listening to the radio and | | | | everyone else. Some of them are sending their |
| using our creative imagination, or reading a book and | | | | spouses to work at menial jobs, others are collecting |
| letting it take us to different locales, now we have to | | | | food stamps and welfare and this number is growing |
| be entertained. Now we don't entertain ourselves. Now | | | | rapidly. These are people who are able-bodied and |
| we need TV, video games, the internet...but the worst | | | | capable of working but who choose not to - and |
| part is that we have isolated ourselves from each | | | | society is supporting them. |
| other. | | | | You don't have to look further than this to see how a |
| Instead of conversation, we plant ourselves in front of | | | | country's economic crisis is irrevocably tied to the |
| TV's. Instead of board games that can be played with | | | | entitlement issues of its populace. |
| the family, we're now playing games on the computers | | | | A couple of years ago, I heard of a teenager who |
| - we're having online relationships that are usually | | | | asked her father for a car after she got her license. |
| disappointing and we aren't reading books like we used | | | | Her parents were divorced and her father was trying |
| to. People used to have to develop social skills. Now | | | | to compensate for not being in the house as a full-time |
| with modern technology and a lack of social interaction, | | | | dad. He didn't have much money so he got her a new |
| social skills seem to be at the bottom of the list of | | | | Volkswagen. She was so angry that he didn't get her |
| priorities. | | | | a luxury car, that she deliberately rammed her car into |
| Unfortunately the ills of society cannot be reversed by | | | | a stone wall and practically demolished it. Her father |
| waving a magic wand over them. As a rule people | | | | couldn't even claim on the insurance because it was |
| don't change unless they are forced to change. So | | | | deliberate. He ended up buying her a used car so that |
| how do we get past this attitude of entitlement? That | | | | she would have transportation. This father, as |
| the world owes us a living? That if you don't have | | | | well-meaning as he probably thought he was, only |
| what you want that it's ok to steal? | | | | contributed to his daughter's sense of entitlement. Had I |
| How do we go back to the basics of child-rearing? | | | | been that child's parent, I would never have bought her |
| Where the parents made the rules and the children | | | | a replacement car and I would have had her go out |
| obeyed them. How do we get parents to see that | | | | and get a job and pay back, each week from her |
| their permissive attitude is damaging their children? | | | | salary, every penny of the amount of the new car that |
| That it's not ok to whine and cry until you get your | | | | she had been given. |
| own way. That we're raising a generation of children | | | | This disregard for property, for other people's financial |
| who are growing up to be irresponsible adults who are | | | | problems, and for other people's feelings represents |
| not held accountable for their actions. | | | | the kind of attitude that is running rampant among |
| These same children will grow up to be dissatisfied | | | | many cultures. When parents accept this kind of |
| with life, blaming others for their failures and not able to | | | | behaviour from their children, they are setting their |
| hold down a job. | | | | children up for failure as adults and of course this plays |
| So before we can fix the economy, we have to fix | | | | right into the failure of the economy of countries |
| ourselves. We have to learn how to put back into the | | | | around the world. |
| community what we have taken from it. We have to | | | | How can we expect our politicians, our bankers, our |
| hold our bankers and our financial institutions | | | | financial institutions, our corporations, to exhibit more |
| accountable for everything. Our greed on a personal | | | | accountability than we expect from our own children? |
| level corresponds with the greed on a corporate level. | | | | Many children, single and married, move back home |
| We have only to look at the increase in shoplifting to | | | | into their parents' home because they cannot afford to |
| the CEO's of major corporations who have stolen | | | | make it on their own. At what point does a parent |
| from their company's pension funds. Now that we're | | | | know that a child must learn how to survive on their |
| facing very very hard times, we need to see how our | | | | own and stop taking money from their parents? At |
| attitude is causing our own destruction. | | | | what point do parents know when they are causing |
| When the economy started to go down, a taxi driver | | | | more harm than good by continuing to treat their |
| in New York City was asked what he was going to | | | | offspring as children? When they continue to make life |
| do if people didn't have enough money to take taxis | | | | easy for their children, these children will not know how |
| and he couldn't pay his bills. Without batting an eyelid | | | | to survive on their own when their parents die. It is far |
| and having to think twice about it, he said "I'd steal." | | | | better to teach children moral and financial responsibility |
| I heard of a woman in her 40's who walked through | | | | when they are young than have to learn it the hard |
| the produce department of a supermarket and started | | | | way when they are older. |
| to eat the grapes and cherries that were on display. | | | | I had to learn this the hard way myself. My father kept |
| She didn't pay for them, nor did she feel guilty for | | | | on giving me money, even when I was in my 30's and I |
| having taken them. It was as if she had the right to | | | | never really learned how to be independent financially. |
| sample whatever goods were out there. Although | | | | It took me telling him that I didn't need his help (even |
| security would not have been called for pilfering | | | | when I really did at the time), and then I learned how to |
| grapes, especially since the goods would not be found | | | | stand on my own two feet and how to earn and |
| on her, it's easy to see why a storeowner's losses | | | | manage money effectively. |
| would have to be passed onto its customers. | | | | I could go on and on giving you examples of |
| When doctors and patients submit fraudulent insurance | | | | entitlement in every strata of society, but the ones that |
| claims - those costs aren't just washed away - they | | | | I have cited are ample demonstrations of how we're |
| get passed onto the other people who are insured. | | | | contributing to the downfall of our economy. We're |
| I recently heard of a man who went into the hospital | | | | doing this on the local level, the national level and the |
| and was there for close to a month. A neighbour of | | | | international level. We're taking the path of least |
| his was one of his golfing buddies, and he was also a | | | | resistance and while we're holding everyone else |
| doctor. And every day he came to the hospital, he | | | | accountable for their actions, we're taking no |
| said hello to his friend. They talked about gold, about | | | | responsibility for our own. |
| politics, their hobbies... and not once did he discuss this | | | | It's time to reverse the status quo: Let's try an |
| man's medical problems.. and this man thought it was | | | | experiment: for one week, between this show and |
| very nice of his neighbour to drop by. When he got his | | | | next week's show, try denying yourself something 3 |
| bill from the hospital, he was absolutely outraged to | | | | times a day. Learn how to say no to yourself. Learn |
| see that that neighbour charged his insurance | | | | how to question your actions, how to observe them |
| company for every single visit for the month that he | | | | and question the validity of them. |