Entitlement

I get it.  Pretty much everyone in a developed country has entitlement issues.  We are amazingly fortunate to have been born (or maybe just live in) a place where we don't actually need anything.

The thing that gets me is the people that whine that what you have or what you're doing is so much better than what they have or what they're doing.

For instance . . . my little household.

My husband and I work hard. We make decent money. While we're not going to be in the "Rich and Famous" section any time soon, we're also not (assuming we keep our jobs, of course!) going to be in the welfare line any time soon.

We have a nice house that we paid too much for (bought in September 2007 at the very top of the real estate bubble!), but we love. When we bought it, the basement was completely unfinished.  We finished it the way we want it . . . with a home theater, a workout room, and a sports bar room (complete with a bar and 6 televisions).

We take nice vacations. We are fortunate to work for employers that provide paid time off and we use it to our advantage.

We don't feel bad about any of it. I don't want to say that we "deserve" the nice things we have.  In fact, I often look around me and am reminded that I definitely do not deserve the things we have.

I have a serious problem with the welfare mentality.  That people that have nice things or get to do nice things somehow owe those who don't.

I have a family member with this issue. I recently posted on Facebook that we were watching television and stopped on the movie Titanic and that we're going to be on a cruise in two weeks and that probably wasn't the best movie choice we could have made.  My family member responded with "U bitch...u always going somewhere...include me one time...i have always wanted to go on a cruise...as the name says...Dream...lol"

A couple of things.

• Does the "lol" at the end mean she was joking?  History says she wasn't.
• There is absolutely no reason not to spell out the word "you."
• She's right.  We go places regularly.  I post about them because the places we go are often more exciting than when we're chilling at home watching a movie.
• I won't include her because she hasn't earned the right to go with.  If she saved and paid for a trip, I'd like to think I would welcome her . . . but to be honest, she would have saved just barely enough to be able to go and wouldn't have any spending money.

It's all bullshit. This is the person who spent God knows how much money this fall fixing up her daughter's room, buying her daughter (I think she's 9) a laptop, etc. and then whined at Thanksgiving that she didn't have any money for Christmas.  What?  That's ridiculous.

So, yes, I do have a sense of entitlement.  The job I work says I'm entitled to a paycheck and a certain amount of time off.  How I spend my paycheck (after I've paid my bills, of course) and how I spend my time off is my own business.

And you're not entitled to bitch about how I spend either.