sense of entitlement increasing?

N Sperlo wrote: I'm sure most entitlement is due to the pussification of America. Everyone is a winner, so no one wants to work for E36 M3.

end conversation there because this is correct. When your company sponsors a youth league football team and you show up as a rep to watch the game and ask who's winning b/c there is no scoreboard and a parent goes "ooooh everyone wins in this league. It's so no one goes home a loser and everyone is a winner!!!!" You realize the United States is becoming a giant V. This whole entitlement nonsense needs to stop too. It's amazing what people give out as excuses as to why they are entitled to things as well.

Sort of the opposite of this effect, right around last Christmas my Dad loaned his brand new truck to my sister because her 14 year old Kia was having issues (automatic tranny leak). My sister thanked him for the loan and thanked him again when he took the Kia and promised to get it repaired.

Imagine her surprise when, in the first week of March, the truck disappears from the house in the middle of the night. She makes panicked phone calls and, later that day, finds out that my Dad had NEVER successfully completed a car payment on said truck and had only "loaned" the vehicle to her in order to hide it from the repo-man.

My sister grew angry at this point and got on the phone to my dad. Something along the lines of "you lying son of a bitch, give me back my berkeleying car."

Sure enough, the Kia comes over the mountain two days later with unexplained body damage, caked with mud inside and out and a gushing tranny leak. Me and the sister had a sit down and have agreed that from now on, I'm the one she comes to for car problems.

Anyway, moral of the story, not all of the entitled shiny happy people are under 30.

I blame the parents. Trust me, if a kid's bitching about not getting an iPhone or car for Christmas, it's because the parents have taught them to expect it.

-Rob

When I was around 12 or so, I wanted a Honda SL70 so bad I could taste it. You think Ralphie was bad over that Red Ryder BB gun? He couldn't hold a candle to me. They were $395.00 new and the Honda shop had a red 1971 demo with a couple scratches for $375.00. Man, I wanted that thing BAD. (Actually I wanted a Hodaka Super Rat more, but that's another whole story.)

So I went to Dad about it. he listened, then said 'Okay, you can have one and I will loan you the money but you have to pay me back'. WHAAAA???? No freebie? Oh noes. So I went off sulking somewhere, a few days later Woods (my dad's handyman for his rental property) came by the house for something or other. I knew Dad held him in high esteem and I thought, 'Aha! Woods will get Pops to see the light'. So I told Woods about how unfair my dad was being.

Woods looked at me and said 'I think he's being very fair about it.' Deflated me immediately, and I held Woods in high regard as well so I figured I was sunk, the grownups were going to conspire to make me stoop to working for something. So I agreed to my dad's onerous conditions, sold my MiniTrail 50 for (IIRC) $75.00 and Dad had me sign a note for the remaining $300.00.

Got my SL70 and all was well with the world. I was supposed to pay Dad $25.00 a month until it was paid off, I mowed lawns threw papers etc and paid him real good for the first 3 months or so then I figured 'heh, he'll never remember the deal' and sorta let one slide.

Went out in the garage and it was chained up. Like with a padlock. It had been repossessed by the First National Bank of Dad. That was my introduction into the way the real world works. Nowadays I think that would be considered child abuse.

But guess what: this Pops pays for the house and groceries etc but my kid works and saves for stuff that she wants.

I hate my generation.

93EXCivic wrote: I hate my generation.

wurd...I hate your generation

...except yours and mine are one in the same

4cylndrfury wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: I hate my generation.

wurd...I hate your generation ...except yours and mine are one in the same

The generation both of you are from sucks so bad...

Curmudgeon I really like that...

is what I know is if I ever said something like those things on the collage that I would have every single bit of what I did get taken away and not be able to sit for a week... and if my kids ever did the same it would be the same...

on a side note... the lack of real TV in the house hugely curbed the "I want this" followed by them quoting the horrid jingle of the product... another reason to dump cable and rock the netflix :)...

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

4cylndrfury wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: I hate my generation.

wurd...I hate your generation ...except yours and mine are one in the same

The generation both of you are from sucks so bad...

The girls from our generation look better. The others are either way too young, or way too old.

In reply to DaewooOfDeath:

Yup, not always the younger generation that feels entitled. It's an individual thing, not a generational one.

My grandfather gives my dad money every month to support himself, and now he's bugging my grandfather to front the down payment on a house and underwrite him on the loan. He's getting ticked off because my grandfather is "not doing what he said" and deciding he's not going to help him out with that.

I'm falling all over myself with thanks because my grandfather is nice enough to give me an interest free loan to go back to school.

donalson wrote: on a side note... the lack of real TV in the house hugely curbed the "I want this" followed by them quoting the horrid jingle of the product... another reason to dump cable and rock the netflix :)...

I've come to the same realization. Since we dumped cable a couple of years ago, the kids rarely "need" some new toy, etc.

DirtyBird222 wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: I'm sure most entitlement is due to the pussification of America. Everyone is a winner, so no one wants to work for E36 M3.

end conversation there because this is correct. When your company sponsors a youth league football team and you show up as a rep to watch the game and ask who's winning b/c there is no scoreboard and a parent goes "ooooh everyone wins in this league. It's so no one goes home a loser and everyone is a winner!!!!" You realize the United States is becoming a giant V. This whole entitlement nonsense needs to stop too. It's amazing what people give out as excuses as to why they are entitled to things as well.

ugh... I may not be the biggest competitor in the world.. but that is life. Somebody wins, somebody loses.. it's how you deal with it that makes you what you are.

Those kids are brats.

There have been brats in every generation. Modern brats can just hang their ass out where everyone can see how spoiled they really are.

"Buuuuut daddy, I want an Ooompa Loompa NOOOOW!"

I remember this same discussion a few years back. I also remember someone finding all sorts of quotes throughout history by famous people all lamenting the laziness of their children's generation. It's a growing up thing, not just a now thing. Being someones child, I am of course to lazy to look it up.

There are entitled people everywhere and from all times. Speaking of which, what generation is getting the largest entitlements ever conceived by man starting in a couple years?

Sense of entitlement:

You know how to tell your an old man? When you start complaining about the younger generations...

Joey

EvanB wrote: Sense of entitlement:

Populism and idiocy are pretty much the same thing. On a related note, isn't it awesome how the Tea Party and OWS are the faces of our two major parties?

Man, those kids are spoiled.

I looked at about 6-7 of them before I got pissed enough to close the link.

The "no TV" method sounds like a good one. I'll have to give this some thought... one more reason to "cut the cable".

I'm a teacher and generally, I think the thing that separates good kids from lazy, entitled kids is having a job.
I think that having kids in extra activities such as band and sports are fine (I did both) but I still think a proper, low-paying, entry-level job is important. Kids that don't work do not understand the relationship of work and money.

My Dad came to Canada in a cargo ship with with about $10 in his pocket. You can bet your @ss he was working a few hours after he arrived. Hunger is a great motivator. And that drive to work made him a successful person who clearly started with nothing.

I worked in a supermarket by the time I was 14. All my kids had jobs by the time they were 15 (waitress, busboy and retail). It would have probably been easier for me to give them money and let them sit in their rooms.
My kids are now successful and totally self-sufficient.

In all honesty I think having kids work is just as important as having them go to school.

By the way, I think the Occupy folks are mad that rich people "gamed" the system to steal from the middle class. It's the entitlement attitude of the wealthy that they are angry about. I agree with that.

aeronca65t wrote: By the way, I think the Occupy folks are mad that rich people "gamed" the system to steal from the middle class. It's the entitlement attitude of the wealthy that they are angry about. I agree with that.

Dead on the money. That's why even as a confirmed capitalist I understand what the movement got started over. Unfortunately, it's gotten co-opted by lame-o's and corporate mavens as all good things eventually do.

At 14 1/2, my daughter is a bit young to take on a job of any sort other than babysitting etc, state laws limit what kids under 15 can do. As soon as she turns 15, she needs to start looking and be ready to sling hash or whatever. Pops will help her get a car and she will have to pay him back but he's going to go dig out the chain and padlock. Just in case.

Last night I met a young woman that was angry that her father had bought her a Ford pickup instead of a Chevy. I was unsympathetic until she mentioned that it had an automatic trans and she missed the 5 spd manual in her old truck.

J308 wrote: Man, those kids are spoiled. I looked at about 6-7 of them before I got pissed enough to close the link. The "no TV" method sounds like a good one. I'll have to give this some thought... one more reason to "cut the cable".

If the wife is around, there will be no news channels on.

Curmudgeon wrote: When I was around 12 or so, I wanted a Honda SL70 so bad I could taste it. You think Ralphie was bad over that Red Ryder BB gun? He couldn't hold a candle to me. They were $395.00 new and the Honda shop had a red 1971 demo with a couple scratches for $375.00. Man, I wanted that thing BAD. (Actually I wanted a Hodaka Super Rat more, but that's another whole story.) ...snip... But guess what: this Pops pays for the house and groceries etc but my kid works and saves for stuff that she wants.

Not all that dissimilar to me. When I was 16, I borrowed $900 to buy my first motorcycle from my Dad. I paid it back with odd money I earned over the summer, but in addition, I was told that I would be digging the trench for the new water line we were installing to the house... by hand.

I put a lot of sweat in that trench, as the soil was rocky and local code said it had to be a minimum of 36" below grade, but every time I rode that bike I knew that I was earning it.

OT: I bought the bike for $900 in 1999 and just sold it this summer for $1060 after putting almost 50k kms on it. I almost cried when it left the driveway...

Actually, my schooling in working for a living started before that. We lived on a 40 acre spread, Dad leased the two fields to a local farmer but there was a patch of woods maybe 10 acres at the edge of the road, the driveway was ~1/4 mile long. My brother and I had been given a worn out minibike when we were 5 and 6 respectively, we wanted a Honda Mini Trail. Dad said OK, you clear out all the underbrush in the pine woods over the summer and when you are finished I will get you the Mini Trail. Man, 1968 was a long hot summer of cutting weeds and brush by hand. Yellow jacket nests, poison oak, sunburn, blisters and calluses. But we wanted that Mini Trail bad.

About two weeks before summer was to end, Dad came home to find my brother and I bawling at the side of the driveway. It had finally occured to us that the stuff we had cut at the beginning of the summer was about half as big as it was before we cut it. We figured we'd never get the thing. Dad took pity on us and brought it home the next week, it was an early 1969 model exactly like this one, right down to the colors and the bent handlebars.

1968 did not have lights, 1969 did and those were the only years with the round tank badges. In 1970 Honda went to an oval badge which wasn't near as cool looking IMHO. I later bought out my brother's half and eventually sold it to help pay for the SL70. Every so often I cruise eBay looking for 1969 Mini Trails. There's one on there now that's at $1365.00.

The SL70 was exactly like this one, color and all: