The toxic culture of entitlement

Politicians of the far right often use the phrase ‘culture of entitlement’ to attack the welfare state, and people experiencing poverty who depend heavily on social support to survive in a world where social solidarity is becoming increasingly scarce. I do not believe people choose to be poor. Poverty is a reality often caused by circumstances that most individuals do not consciously create for themselves.

So, demonising people with low incomes will never help make us a better society. But we can do a lot more to challenge the culture of entitlement and dependency that is weakening our society.

In Europe, political parties of both the right and left exploit the natural desire of most people for instant gratification. Mediocre politicians do this out of self-interest to curry favour with the electorate.

Canadian social psychologist and author Brian Tracy says: “People are neither good nor bad. They are merely expedient. Hu­man nature leads people to seek the fastest, easiest way to get what they want right now, with little concern for the long-term consequences of their actions. This is the driving force behind virtually all human behaviour, and political leaders know this.”

Western democracies nurture a culture of entitlement and dependency among their citizens. Most Western political leaders offer their supporters free money, or money with very few strings attached.

I use the word ‘money’ in its broader sense. It really means some easily gained personal advantage that has value. More and more people will grab this money until it becomes “a feeding frenzy with everyone trying to get more and more money the fastest and easiest way possible”.

Most Western societies, especially European ones, evolved in a predictable way. Every society goes through several phases.

Initially, a society has ‘frontier’ characteristics – a willingness to take risks by exploring new territory to discover new sources of sustenance. It then moves to the agrarian stage, then to the industrial stage, and then grows in wealth and affluence, becoming an entrepreneurial society.

What Europe needs is a culture built on pride, a free, self-responsible, self-reliant, crea­tive and pragmatic attitude to life by those able to work

At some stage it develops so much wealth that politicians think they have enough to give to prospective supporters without hurting the overall eco­nomy. Whoever has studied the classics are familiar with the ‘bread and circuses’ political strategy promoted by Roman emperors as Rome declined, fell apart, and disappeared as a society.

The ‘bread and circuses’ strategy always fails in the long term, as there is never enough money for this to continue for long. Tracy makes a very observant remark: “Free cash is like a narcotic. When you first take it, it has a specific effect. But after a while, you must have more and more free money to get the same amount of pleasure.”

This is why people who receive government handouts are never satisfied. They are never grateful. All they want is more and more free money, and they will become angry if they don’t get it, and quick­ly vote for someone else who promises to give it to them.

The crisis of leadership Europe is suffering is possibly partly the result of our political leaders succumbing to the straightforward strategy of making our societies dependent on a culture of entitlement. As we all know, money does not grow on trees.

In most Western economies, some public-sector workers defend their privileges to the hilt, while private-sector workers struggle with uncertainty about their future. Politicians often shy away from challenging unreasonable claims by certain public-sector employees for benefits unavailable to those in the private sector. Other public-sector workers, especially in healthcare, are underappreciated. It is this dangerous attitude that is putting the hard-won gains of the welfare state at risk.

Cultural change is possibly the most challenging element any political and business leader has to face when trying to put an organisation, and indeed a country, on the right path to growth and prosperity. European governments, unlike other Western ones, are generally more generous to the weak by providing social support to those who cannot do much to improve their quality of life.

But a sustainable welfare state cannot be achieved just by increasing taxation and spending to satisfy the electorate’s dependence on a culture of entitlement. What Europe needs is a culture built on pride, a free, self-responsible, self-reliant, crea­tive and pragmatic attitude to life by those able to work.

We need to inculcate these values in all our people, especially the young, and hardwire industriousness into our social and economic strategies.