(06-15-2016, 08:42 PM)RTBoss Wrote: Right on. I'm continually astounded by the entitlement mentality of people around me here in the US. The problem is people take everything at face value, lack gratitude, and are satisfied to the point where they aren't aware of what "lack" is.
People come here from other countries and see the hope and value, and kill it. Meanwhile, there are a lot of American-born victim-mentality poor-little-me type people everywhere with their hand held out like they're owed something.
Living here, at times, it's hard to keep perspective. But that's nothing compared to the hardships that many other people have to endure.
On the other hand, there are many wonderful, generous, and grateful people here as well.
I'm going to be very honest: I find this mentality of yours overly simplistic and a little disturbing.
I'm quite well versed in American economics, American sociopolitics and socioeconomics -- I had to be, in order to operate as an effective marketing exec. And when you REALLY get down to the nitty gritty of how this country works (because it's a system, like everything else in existence), you find that for the most part, the idea of "the American Dream" is a bullshit illusion. The most successful people in this country are generally "others," people that were either rejected by society by virtue of some undesirability, people that are hyper-intelligent (and rejected because of it, turning that rejection into motivation) people from another country, or people that were given a pass by virtue of race, looks, family legacy, or a mixture of all three.
The people from another country that come here and "kill it" were never inherently part of the system in the first place and aren't expected to operate by those internal rules. The average American does not willingly disengage from the system because great pains are taken to prevent that from happening. From birth to old age, we're taught to go to grade school (which indoctrinates you to become a happy worker), go to university and accrue lots of debt (which, outside of STEM, operates as a propaganda machine), get married (which no longer exists in an optimal state -- it's purely a tax play now), accrue MORE debt through buying a house and fancy car and having kids (which makes it IMPOSSIBLE for you to disengage from that system).
And if you dare say you want to become an entrepreneur, what happens? People will criticize your idea and go out of their way to push you back into being a good little worker. The idea of your self-actualization as an individual existing outside of the system threatens them so much that they'll do ANYTHING to make you fail. Hell, if you say you have no intentions of getting married, that somehow makes you a misogynist man baby -- as if your entire life's purpose should be to hand over all your resources to a woman so she can consume, consume, consume. Or, in other words: place your earnings back into the system.
What you're referring to as an attitude of entitlement is a collective subconscious realization that the dream we're sold is NOTHING like the reality of the situation. And what we're seeing is a very small percentage of people at the top hoarding the majority of the wealth in America and flaunting it in our faces by doing whatever they can to NOT reinvest money back into the system. America's financial burden is falling on the backs of the middle class. And people are getting angry, and they're threatening to opt out and/or bring down the system (hence, this very odd selection of presidential candidates -- this is a disruption.)
Hey Sarge: This is a manifestation of "as above, so below." On a subconscious level, people are growing increasingly frustrated with the system, so it's manifesting on a macro level as a disruption of the system through the election process. Sorry, had to do it bro.
Now, I agree that this is the WRONG way to go about it. I believe public schools should teach more classes on entrepreneurship, creativity, financial management and innovation and using those talents for public service rather than memorizing random facts and stifling natural impulses. That way, our children will have a creator's mindset as opposed to a consumers.
But ask yourself: What would be the long-term economic implications for a social plan designed to produce creators instead of consumers?
Answer: It simply wouldn't work in the current socioeconomic system.
Ask yourself why we no longer follow the apprenticeship system that worked so well in earlier times. Where, as a child, you devoted yourself to a vocation, mastered that craft and then excelled as an adult -- only to take on an apprentice and repeat the system?
Answer: Because it wouldn't work in the current socioeconomic system. This system is based completely on CONSUMPTION. Thus, it makes sense that every facet of the system, from education to romance, be based on the notion that you must consume.
So, your suggestion to just appreciate what we have here and remember that other countries have it worse is pretty much asking people to not demand change, and that notion is usually rooted in fear. Fear of losing an advantage. Fear of more competitors. Fear of losing a privilege. Somewhere deep inside, everyone knows that they are participating in a game that you cannot opt-out of. You must adopt a strategy and play. Some are taking the victim-mindset. Some are deciding to suck it up and go after entrepreneurship. But don't try to whittle the situation down to "mere entitlement." That's a myth -- that's indoctrinated thought. And when I say that it's tough to become an entrepreneur in today's society, I'm talking from experience. I AM an online entrepreneur, and unless you've tried it, you wouldn't believe the nonsense you have to go through.
That's because the system is designed for you to consume. Not produce.
