Welfare Entitlement Mentality

I was in a good mood this morning until I read this and this.

The editorials are about a 58 year old woman in New Orleans named Sharon Jasper who is the poster girl for excessive liberal entitlement mentality. She has been on welfare for 57 of those years. In a separate article, she was featured in her government subsidized apartment, complete with hardwood floors and a large screen television. But that's not enough for her. Though she pays no rent, she's complaining that she also has to pay for the utilities that she uses. Wow, shocking, there is actually something in life that she has to pay for herself! Human rights violation! Social injustice! Racism!

How about, "Give Me A Break".

After reading all of this, I couldn't help but be reminded of John F. Kennedy's famous quote: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

The thing is, people like Jasper exist in every country of the world where welfare exists. I would suggest to you that the more generous the welfare, the larger the percentage of people who are on it. I am in support of getting rid of it? Absolutely not, but every government should go back to first principles and ask what welfare is for. Then they should change it so as to incentivize people to get off it and start working.

In my own life, I find a certain percentage of recipients from my computer donation program who have exactly this mentality, this sense of entitlement. Where their level of greed becomes too great, we reject them ... without apology. I often wonder if we're the first ones who have ever said 'No' to them.

Another big difference in Canada is that most of the people with the same warped view of the world as Jasper are white. So I absolutely detest that when people like Jasper are hauled onto the proverbial carpet and described for exactly what they are, that "racism" is automatically decried.

I'll leave you with a definition that I believe well describes this entitlement mentality:

in·fan·til·ize (nfn-tl-z, n-fn-)tr.v. in·fan·til·ized, in·fan·til·iz·ing, in·fan·til·iz·es

1. To reduce to an infantile state or condition.

2. To treat or condescend to as if still a young child.