Entitlement

We throw this word around a lot, so perhaps we should examine it a little more thoroughly.  First, entitlement is defined simply as: “the fact of having a right to something.”  There are many people who feel they have this right to many different things.   There are people who can perhaps trace their ancestry back to the Mayflower who may believe they are entitled to be among the ruling class.  Yet, there are also likely some of the same heritage who live in trailer parks or worse and who are primarily concerned with the roof over their heads and how they will eat tomorrow.  Similarly, there are some people who are descendants of slaves who may live today in wealthy and tony areas of cities or suburbs while other such descendants may live in poverty and curse that birth right while believing they are entitled to what others born into better situations seem to have.

Who of the above is entitled to what?    Another word we like to use without any depth of examination is “fairness.”  Is it fair to provide entitlements to a wealthy person of color while denying the same to an impoverished white?  That is what happens when we base programs and entitlements on ethnicity, color, or race.  Is it fair that a white child is denied access to college scholarships or a young entrepreneur be denied access to grants and funding simply because of the color of their skin, even when without such aid it is difficult at best that the white child will find a way to attend college or to develop her business?  Is it fair that a wealthy person of color can apply for and perhaps receive aid, grants, and similar assistance denied to the white simply because of the color of their skin? And, if entitlements are based on ethnicity, how does that work in this age of ancestry DNA tests that can determine the racial mix of nearly all Americans?  A person seen as white may have a significant percentage of DNA belonging to non-white races; does that mean that person may claim that ethnicity and entitlements that go along with it?  What percentage will be enough? 

Beyond the above, there is a deeper, more sinister problem with entitlements, especially when entitlements become a way of life that is handed down from one generation to the next.  The definition of entitlements is “the act of entitling” or “the state of being entitled.”  (Interestingly, this word first appeared here in the early 1800s; was there no sense of entitlement prior to that time?)  The problem with entitlements is that they can become a way of destroying the human spirit or at least a way of creating an underclass of people who will be dependent on someone else’s power rather than their own for their well-being and perhaps their very existence.  When one is provided with what one wants, there is little incentive for working for that something.  With the expectation that one will receive one’s wishes with little or no effort on their own one is likely to lose respect for the things provided as well as for those who work to provide it.  And one will become dependent on those who provide the entitlements.  As a class of people they will become beholden to the power class that provides the entitlements.  This provides a way for that power class to remain in power and reduces the likelihood that the power class will receive challenges from those whom they are entitling.  It also has the potential to reduce the spirt of those being entitled.  It is a way of signaling that one is not capable of taking care of oneself, a concept that is in the end demeaning and a way of signaling that the entitled class is somehow less than the class doing the entitling.

A third problem with entitlements is that sooner or later everyone wants their piece of the pie.  Some tend to forget that the entitlements are ultimately funded by people like themselves.  Yet, if people are less industrious due to entitlements they will have less to contribute, via taxes or otherwise, to the entitlement fund.  And, as taxes increase to fund entitlements and the tax burden becomes greater and greater, more and more people will feel the need for entitlements just to survive.  Ultimately, the system must collapse. 

This is not a post that argues to completely eliminate programs that are designed to help people in a variety of difficult situations.  Nor does this post not acknowledge that each one of us is born into a different place and situation and that the situation of one’s birth may seem to place one in a more or less advantageous circumstance to begin life.  But, so do the differences in one’s intelligence and innate talents.  And the ways that one will be raised.  No two birth situations are the same and some are far better than others.  That is likely to never change; it is simply a fact of life.  What is important is that we not view or treat all people born in one type of situation differently than how we treat those born or placed in other situations.

What this blog does intend to suggest is that entitlements, especially those based on race, ethnicity or similar identity factors are unwise, unfair, and likely destructive.  It is also contrary to the values underlying our democracy and the American Dream.  While these “bourgeois values” have come under attack lately, the qualities of hard word, drive, individual responsibility, and the belief that one, with one’s own effort, can become the best one can be, are the values that have brought many to this country and that have allowed many to succeed in their dreams.  Is it really fair is to consider some people entitled just because they do not have everything that they wish for without consideration of the effort they themselves have contributed? Is it really fair to condemn some people’s successes, achieved through their own hard work, just because of their color or station in life?  What is fair, far fairer than identity entitlements, is to simply give each citizen the same opportunities and let them do with those opportunities what they will.  The results are likely to be different for everyone, but that is not a lack of fairness; rather, it is a difference in each individual’s talents, skills, motivation, values, etc.   Such results, while individually diverse, are fair and moreover will not create an underclass of people dependent on entitlements and someone else’s power for their existence.