America: Land of Entitlement?

On July 3rd, 2013: I posted this on Facebook (and these series of questions were asked on a blog by a well-known author) so we can discuss due to the importance of what we are facing in America today: Why do some of the best entitlement benefits go to our leaders—the President of the United States, our Congressional leaders, and other government workers? Once a President or congressman is elected, we the taxpayers take care of them for life. If they are qualified to be our leaders, why can’t they take care of themselves?

My sister & fellow author Angelia Vernon Menchan responded that they can but one of the reasons those jobs are so attractive is because it has been written and decided they didn't have to. I loved her response so much, that I asked her to elaborate for this post.

Angelia: My answer was that politicians could take care of themselves but the perks of being cared for, for the rest of their lives made politics very attractive. Not all are attracted for those reasons but the perks are undeniable. Are they entitled to them, forever? Or do we as voters, taxpayers and citizens have a right to protest and vote these perks away? I feel we do have the right but it is not an undertaking that would be without consequences for all. Does doing away with high level perks trickle down to us and even more losses are incurred. For instance would government workers want to forego retirement or not have a percentage of the thrift savings plans go unmatched? Do we care enough about the overall country to make these changes for the coming generations?

Also we enjoy capitalism and to a great extent that has led to the bankruptcy of our county while many private businesses and CEOs reap millions, even billions. Do we regulate those entities to change that thus changing our culture?

A larger question is as Christians how political should we be if we know we must be in the world but not of the world?

Tremayne: If the truth be told, it’s almost like saying there are rules for a group of people, and there are rules for another group. One thing that comes to mind is the credit card companies (they have rules that we don’t). I’m going to correlate that to the parable of unforgiveness at the end of Matthew 18. A man owed a king a huge amount of money, and the king forgave him. Now the man had someone under him who owed a lot less than what was owed to the king, and the man opted not to forgive him. Now the credit card companies today are no different. They asked for a bailout and they got it, now when we want forgiveness, they closed down our credit, raised our interest rates and demand that we pay it. Sounds like to me, the credit card companies can’t take care of themselves.

One of the tragedies we’re facing today is that we feel that the world owes us a living. And when we don’t get our way, we turn to revolting and civil disobedience. Is this all because we feel entitled? YES!

I add to Angelia’s questions: what are we going to do about it? Complain and continue to allow us taxpayers to take care of them while we are only a day short of bankruptcy? Do we feel entitled or are we going to do whatever we can to make our dreams come true?