Has America Always Had an Entitlement Mentality? (health care, Indiana, Obama)

[clb10]

Save U.S. by stopping entitlement mentality | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

The very wealthy were eliminated. The people who had created jobs were eliminated. Everything was under the control of the government. Within a few years, Russia became one of the poorest nations of the world. The politicians, to help maintain their power, promised entitlements to everybody. Nobody had any personal responsibility; everyone turned to government for all of his needs. Government gave to the people as government saw fit. Government determined where people should live and provided only government-approved food. Government limited the amount of health care people could have.

Perhaps if we begin to learn the meaning of the word "sacrifice" again we can stop demanding that the government give us everything we want like children begging mommy for some candy.

Sacrifice | Define Sacrifice at Dictionary.com

noun
1.
the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.
2.
the person, animal, or thing so offered.
3.
the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
4.
the thing so surrendered or devoted.
5.
a loss incurred in selling something below its value.

[Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus]

No, the concept of entitlement began with the failed policies of the Obama administration.

[desertdetroiter]

Yea...pretty much. I certainly can't figure out a time when this country didn't have an entitlement mentality.

[clb10]

Originally Posted by desertdetroiter

Yea...pretty much. I certainly can't figure out a time when this country didn't have an entitlement mentality.

Stupid People & Their Entitlement Mentality - YouTube

[wutitiz]

The answer is no--in the 19th century there were quite a few European intellectuals who made there way over to the US to see first hand what alll the hubub was about. One such visitor was the Alexis de Toqueville, who was actually sent over to study American penology and wound up writing the classic 'Democracy in America.

There is a passage from History of the American People by Paul Johnson about these European visitors:

Originally Posted by Paul Johnson

What all observers recorded was the absence of begging. As one of them put it in 1839: 'During two years spent in traveling through every part of the Union, I have only once been asked for alms.' To Europeans, that seemed incredible....

(p. 388)
A History of the American People - Paul Johnson - Google Books

[geofra]

Has America Always Had an Entitlement Mentality?

Maybe it goes back to when the Pilgrims thought they were entitled to their worship.

Or, possibly, when the early settlers thought they were entitled to American Indian land.

For sure when the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was immortalized in ink.

Isn't that the very definition of entitlement; having the right to something?

[DraggingCanoe]

it began after the 14th Amendment.

[noexcuseforignorance]

Perhaps if we begin to learn the meaning of the word "sacrifice" again we can stop demanding that the government give us everything we want like children begging mommy for some candy.

Your WE there would include American service people. How dare you say that those people don't understand the word sacrifice. We should be grateful for the sacrifice of a lot of people.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by geofra

Or, possibly, when the early settlers thought they were entitled to American Indian land.

This.

[Bideshi]

No, it began around 1965.