The Age of Entitlement (This blog deserves your attention)

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The Millenial Perspective

Date: 8/3/2009 6:23:43 PM

Joshua Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

As I was scouring the internet recently, I found an article that seemed sadly indicative of the world in which we are living...

The Telegraph reports:

Trina Thompson, 27, claims Monroe College in New York did not do enough to help her find employment.

She is seeking to recover the £42,000 she spent on getting her degree from the college in the Bronx.

Court papers showed that Miss Thompson claimed the college's career centre did not provide her with the right advice or tips on available jobs.

"They have not tried hard enough to help me," she wrote about the college in her lawsuit filed at the Bronx Supreme Court.

If this were just a single instance in which someone acted irrationally because s/he thought that s/he deserved something then I wouldn't be writing this. Unfortunately, this is just one example of a growing problem in this nation - the mindset of entitlement. Homegrown in a land of government welfare, some of my peers believe that they deserve certain benefits. Unfortunately for them (and often, by extension, us) this is often not true.

What caught my attention in this article was the statement "They have not tried hard enough to help me." Here's the thing: "they" don't have to. A college doesn't exist to provide you with a job; a college exists to qualify people to enter into professional careers, prepared for success in a competitive world.

The other thing that jumped out at me was this: What on earth did the college do to warrant getting sued? Perhaps the most important aspect of an education is personal discipline. A disciplined lifestyle will not only help you succeed through your academic career, but through your professional career as well. However, this means that it is hard to blame anyone but yourself for the outcome of your education.

Some time ago, something very simple was communicated to me that sums up much of the conservative ideology: conservatives believe in equal opportunity, not equal outcome. As far as I know, Ms. Thompson had just as much of an opportunity as anyone else to find a job, the fact that she didn't find one, while unfortunate, is of no fault to the college.

Now, is this an extreme example of the larger problem that I am addressing? Undoubtedly. But it does illustrate a growing trend in our society. Citizens are beginning to expect government health care and welfare and retirement handouts, but these are not things that the government owes us or that the government is constitutionally obligated to provide to us. As American citizens, we need to always be wary of falling into the mindset of entitlement.

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=============== COMMENTS ===============

8/10/2009 5:35:04 PM
What a nation of whiners we have raised! Egads, how did we parents manage to screw up so badly? Perhaps too much imput from TV, Hollywood in general....and let's not forget out big brother. Seems he has always had his nose in our parenting.

8/10/2009 10:02:25 AM
The age in which we live is increasing troubling. I can remember in the 60's there was no sense of entitlement for blacks or women. Quite the contrary, we almost expected nothing positive. When I grew up in Mississippi; if a girl had a baby out of wedlock, it was the responsibility of the girl's parents to provide for the mother and child until she found employment. The blacks from my era in the state of Mississippi are much more prosperous than their children. There was no help: We had to work for everything we got and it built character. I'm 63 and have worked since I was a child. I picked cotton, and did days work. That's a job where we washed, ironed, cleaned white folks houses and raised their kids while they worked. At the time I resented the lack of opportunity. But it pushed me to go to college and get out of the South and find meaningful employment. Freebies do not motivate one to reach for the stars.

8/10/2009 8:33:53 AM
My husband have been saying the same thing for a while now. That is one of the major problems with our society these days. That is also why Obama got elected and is able to push his agenda through so easily. People don't want to have to do anything for themselves or take any responsibility for themselves such as working and saving $ to buy nice homes. As long as they can get handouts they are happy. They won't be happy when they realize they have no freedoms. Government is itching to control every aspect of our lives and with the mindset of this nation; it will happen. All we can hope for is the people who understand all of this will fight BIG GOVERNMENT. This sample of this lawsuit speaks VOLUMES, if we will only LISTEN.

8/10/2009 4:56:09 AM
it does irk me the entitlement kids feel..kids are entitled to have food in their mouth, a roof over their head, and clothing on their back...it is a blessing they have the opportunity to even get an education.

8/9/2009 9:24:07 PM
good article

8/9/2009 8:10:49 PM
ABSOLUTELY........

8/9/2009 12:30:06 PM
The college does not O her any thing .

8/9/2009 8:05:15 AM
I am disgusted with the way we are now encouraged by our government to be NEEDY PEOPLE. Or the entitlement gen. I had epilepsy as I was growing up and though it would have made it easier for me financially to accept a FREE RIDE to college, my response to a counsellor was that I am fine, have a supportive family and church family and am not in NEED OF ANY HANDOUT WHERE MY CONDITION WAS CONCERNED> IT burns me I was even pinpointed for that wasted time. However, the lessons it taught me were invaluable. Please people wake up!!!!!!!! We do not desire socialism and must do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE To communicate our opposition, but of course in a respectful way.

8/9/2009 7:27:07 AM
I know I would NEVER hire that girl. She has shown whe wuold be a worthless employee. I doubt she'll ever find a job. Employers don't want sue crazy employees. She would never be satisfied with earning her salary. She has made a big mistake. I don't think even obama would hire her.

8/9/2009 6:24:53 AM
The truth and nothing but the truth...

8/9/2009 6:13:49 AM
what a mindset...thinking someone else is responsible for our outcome..ridiculous!!

8/8/2009 11:27:43 PM
Get off your butt lady and go looking for work. You want to be spoon-fed Maybe?

8/8/2009 6:22:03 PM
If we want a job we have to go out and get it !!

8/8/2009 3:53:42 PM
Amen!

8/8/2009 9:22:49 AM
well written and, unfortunately, true; the college recruiters promise things the college can't deliver and throw out 'facts' like 89% of our grads are placed within . . . That is just not the way it works. Good article

8/8/2009 8:38:28 AM
Absolutely right! We need to stop this mindset of entitlement in America. If you want something-WORK FOR IT!!!

8/7/2009 10:26:09 PM
This is just so sad, makes you wonder about her upbringing. I would be so disappointed if that was my child.

8/7/2009 9:41:46 PM
Righteousness exhalteth a nation (Right thinking, obedience to God, responsibility for your own actions, but sin is a reproach (humiliation, disgrace)to any people. The government doesn't give anything it doesn't take first. You've only touched the tip of the iceberg, but well done.

8/7/2009 9:23:03 PM
excellent

8/7/2009 7:30:26 PM
i whole-hearterdly agree

8/7/2009 4:43:14 PM
AMEN!!!!

8/7/2009 2:52:51 PM
Amen!

8/7/2009 2:04:10 PM
Amen!!

8/7/2009 10:25:52 AM
Right on. The sad part is good jobs are more rare in our current situation. but entitlement has no place in any environment. This goes for our elected officials too. BT in Texas.

8/7/2009 10:16:06 AM
Unless the school promised to find her a job, the graduate needs to take responsibility for her job-search and her employment future.

8/7/2009 8:37:43 AM
It's only a beginning...

8/6/2009 10:50:19 PM
a growing trend? this trend was growing in the early 1900s. It is now unquestionably endemic to our malcontent, ostentatiously diseased society.

8/6/2009 10:06:42 PM
Great observations. The trend of entitlement is unfortunately something that a socialist society teaches. A free-market society encourages creativity, hard work and personal responsibility. We must encourage the later or our children and grandchildren will pay BIG in more ways than one.

8/6/2009 9:09:20 PM
Our society lacks NOTHING except the development of personal responsibility. Yes, indeed, the Age of Entitlement! Great stuff! Now get someone over here to think for me...oh wait, BO's attempting to do that, already. My bad.

8/6/2009 6:14:43 PM
This crazy idea of entitlement must end! Didn't her Mother teach her any better than that????

8/6/2009 5:21:56 PM
I don't think we have enough facts to reflexively conclude the suit is baseless. When I went to law school, I had a Property professor who taught his liberal social theories and essentially no property law. Suppose all the profs had been like that and I had failed the bar exam because I got a lousy, PC education? Would that be an entitlement mentality? Didn't think so.

8/6/2009 2:39:59 PM
Ms. Thompson's gpa was 2.7...perhaps it was Ms. Thompson who didn't try hard enough?

8/6/2009 9:27:20 AM
No one owes me anything except the right to make choices. Good article.

8/6/2009 8:48:57 AM
Next up...Who's gonna help me do my work?...who's gonna help me get promoted?...Who's gonna help me rich?...It will never end.

8/6/2009 2:43:23 AM
I long for the day when we will enter into the mindset of personal accountability. This woman's education is not the isolated factor by which her prospective employers will evaluate her. By this, is she then implying that she is otherwise perfectly hireable, aside from her claim that she has now been damaged by an inferior education?

8/5/2009 8:27:03 PM
I come from parents who were LEGAL immigrants. The difference in the philosophy is this: We were taught that we can have anything that we are WILLING TO WORK FOR and that no one owes us anything. This is the way that most immigrants raise their children. They left their home country for a better life and came here the right way and followed the rules. Taking help from the government (living on the dole) was an embarassment to the whole family.

8/5/2009 8:13:58 PM
Excellent points made here.

8/5/2009 8:05:19 PM
Re: "Then again, you have to wonder about the quality of a college that has students whose first reaction to the situation would be to sue..." Kids go to college with 18 years of values they've learned from their upbringing. The college can't be expected to brainwash someone of everything they already are when they enter as a freshman. I also know young people who went to the larger colleges and have the same mentality.

8/5/2009 5:35:45 PM
If we are truly entitled to something, it would be hell!

8/5/2009 3:10:58 PM
This reminds me of the question posed to the presidential candidates: Is health insurance a right, a responsibility, or a privelege? McCain said its a responsibility. Obama said its a right.

8/5/2009 3:02:40 PM
As a conservative, I believe in having all of the facts before jumping to conclusions. In this case, I'm wondering whether this college (which doesn't seem to be your typical big university) made claims that they would help students get jobs in addition to giving them an education. Then again, you have to wonder about the quality of a college that has students whose first reaction to the situation would be to sue...

8/5/2009 1:26:25 PM
Great

8/5/2009 12:29:42 PM
This is right on! I believe it all started when the woman burned herself with her hot coffee, sued and got a cool million. Fortunately, I was born too many years ago and do NOT think anyone owes me anything. I work for all that I have and will have. Thanks for taking the time to write this!