Attitude of Entitlement in American Society - Term Paper Example

America has grown to be the largest economy in the world and this idea may have brought the attitude of entitlement in its society. Americans thought that they deserve the best of everything, the best homes, cars, gadgets, clothes etc. And that if they cannot afford it, the government should provide because they are Americans and it is the duty of the government to take care of them. Americans also had the notion that since their government is the richest in the world, it can afford to give them entitlements. The sense of entitlement that Americans feel is very broad so we are going to pick one issue that illustrates the debate about entitlement in America which is health care. Americans believe that their citizenship gives them the ticket to be taken care of by the government. This idea was reinforced by Obama’s health care policy known as “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to Health Care” which was enacted in 2010. This law puts into policy the American’s idea of entitlement in health care through the government’s increase funding and coverage for Medicaid and Medicare. In a way, American’s sense of entitlement is good as many experts assented particularly to Obama’s new health care policy, which addresses the present inequitable distribution of health care spending. Previously, half of the total expenditure in health care was spent on the 5% of the population and only 3% was spent on the 50% of the population. As it currently stands, the majority of American population receives only a miniscule fraction of health care expenditure while half of its total health care expenditure was spent on a small privileged number of Americans Clearly, there was an uneven and inequitable distribution of health care cost allocation which the law would like to address. (The Huffington Post, 2010).This would not have taken place had Americans thought that they deserve less than those who are rich. The law was also justified with the 1.5% saving that will be discounted by the government’s ability to negotiate lower health care costs even if many critics agree that this may not be enough to defray the cost associated with the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Proponents of Obamacare, as the new law was labeled by its critics, however defended that in the long-run, America will stand to gain from it because of the policy’s proactive componenet of preventing diseases. The law is only good in intent that it encourages entitlement through a dole out during a difficult time. The expanded coverage of Medicaid and Medicare will require additional funding from the federal government which is inappropriate at this time. This initiative has been questioned because the law was enacted at a time when America was still reeling from the recent financial crisis that additional expenditures on the health care of the America’s will make its recovery more difficult. This reservation about the new health care policy was aired by Rep. Broun of the 10th Congressional District of Georgia in his critique of the new law, that Obamacare is a “118 billion doll unfunded mandate on the states through 2023”. The additional funding required for the expansion of Medicaid’s coverage will strain further the federal budget and will contribute to the government’s widening fiscal deficit. There was already $630 billion that has been allocated “to be used to finance health insurance coverage over the next 10 years. This amount, however, was characterized only as a “down payment” on additional spending for government-provided health coverage” (Clemens 26). According to Karen A. Campbell of the The Heritage Foundation, Obamacare will only widen the government’s budget deficit instead of reducing it. According to an estimate, the added deficit would amount to $75 billion per year The implementation of the new health care policy is ill-timed because it is being implemented at a time when Americans are very sensitive about cost and still in the process of recovering from the financial crisis. Moreover, the new health care policy was perceived as a disincentive for business to expand that would aggravate the high unemployment rate. Also, while the intention of the law is good, it still will not sit well with the majority of Americans because it runs counter to the the American cherished value of earning your keeps which has made this country strong. America managed to extricate itself and rose from the ashes of the Great Depression and two world wars not because it relied on dole outs, outside help or aid. America rose up to be the largest economy in the world and strongest military power because of its hard work, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic. America is the bastion of capitalist ideal where you earn your keeps. The proverbial “American Dream” encapsulated this idea that in the United States, you can have whatever you want or you can be whatever you want to be for as long as you work on it and believe that you can achieve it. Nowhere in American value system that says that you can have whatever you want by asking it from others or from the government. We have what we want through hard work, perseverance and persistence. It can be argued that doling out is just a government’s actuation of showing that it cared for its citizen and making our society more just and humane. Without contest the intention of caring for another human being and making our society just and humane are laudable intentions but the manner they are exercised in is not ideal. It is because it is done through dole out, which encourages dependency and fuels our sense of entitlement, that makes us weak because we no longer want to work to get the things we want. It is unfortuate that the old thinking, which made us strong and powerful, is now changing among Americans today. When America became a superpower and rich, we became lazy and indolent thinking that the government owed us something. We developed a notion that we can still have things even if we do not work for them and just ask from the government. The government in turn encourages it by giving us dole outs, meal stubs, luxurious health care we do not deserve, etc. As a result, instead of alleviating the condition of those who are experiencing hardship in America, they are getting poorer. It is because doling out does not better an individual’s condition in the long run. It may give temporary relief but it also develops dependency and beneficiary mentality among the recipients so that they no longer want to work. As a result, many of our citizens are getting weaker because they depend more on our government to provide them instead of them taking care of themselves. With this kind of mentality, many Americans became destitute because they had lost the drive and initiative that once animated us to achieve and to work hard to get what we want. America was never founded on a dole out mentality. Since our forebears landed in this country, they had always asserted, struggled and worked for whatever gain they had. From the revolutions we underwent from overcoming the British to eradicating slavery and discrimination, it was never given to them on a silver platter but was rather earned with blood, sweat and tears. Which is why we are called a land of opportunity and never a land of dependency because we are supposed to be a country where hard work, persistence and brilliance pays off. References Campbell, Karen (2010). Obamacare: Impact on the Economy. The Heritage Foundation. . Retrieved from Read More