The Entitlement Trap

For the most part, libertarian minded people see life as that no one owes you a damn thing.  We come into this world as one person with inherent natural, God given rights.  The only thing we are owed and owe to others, if anything, is to not infringe on any individual's inherent rights.

But no.  There are a number of "truths" of the human condition.  One of those is that we easily and often allow petty emotions and selfish concerns take over our thinking.  That is what entitlement thinking really is, selfish and petty feelings.

What lies behind entitlement thinking?  Greed, envy,  and laziness, among others.  These petty feelings make us confused and think things aren't "fair" and that if it seems like"everyone" has something we want, especially those we perceive as better off and what we are wanting is something we consider valuable, we think those things are somehow owed to us.

There's nothing new or even anything wrong with wanting more and better things.  It's part of how we improve our lot in life.  Those desires motivate us and give us goals to reach for.

What is wrong is thinking that we are owed those things we want and are yet unable to obtain ourselves.  When we convince ourselves and try to convince others that these things should be "free" or provided to us by someone or some entity.

A truth of life...  Life is not "fair".  It never had been, it never will be nor is it even possible.  No one owes us anything but for that which we have earned.

For me, I look at the world with no expectations of being given anything.  When I am given anything, I find myself very grateful and appreciative for it.  I do not expect it though.

I'm a libertarian minded person, I also have a strong appreciation for the founding documents of the U.S.  particularly the Declaration of Independence.  Our country is like no other country in the world because in that Declaration, it was established that our reason for being a separate and distinct country is to create a society based upon the individual as a sovereign being that is not owned or secondary to the collective.

The Declaration sets forth that our society exists as a free association of individuals.  The government intended and established to recognize the sovereignty of each individual and to ensure that the collective does not determine the outcomes for individuals.

The Constitution spells out a specifically limited government to ensure a basis for states within the union to ensure that essential and basic recognition then make of their place what they will given those constitutional foundations.

Entitlement thinking has no place in a society established upon those founding documents.  We are a place where we are owed nothing but the respect of our inherent rights and what we earn.

So many people are so far disassociated from that concept as to effectively be living somewhere else.  We are not owed healthcare services.  We are owed only the inherent right to care for our health as an act of maintaining and sustaining our right to life.  Not the same things at all.

We are not owed an income.  We are only owed the ability to make our own decisions and choices of what to do with our lives, our means of sustaining ourselves.

In other words, what we are owed is Life, Liberty and Pursuit of happiness.  Nothing more, nothing less.