The Value of Self-Sufficiency 558.4
When young children start to learn new things, they commonly reject any help, declaring, "I want to do it myself!" Whatever happened to this growing flame of self-reliance and independence?
Why have so many young people replaced this youthful hunger for self-sufficiency with an entitlement mentality? Why are so many comfortable with their hands out and indifferent to the idea of keeping their heads high?
We need to do a better job promoting self-sufficiency as a good thing, as a mark of maturity, as a requirement of independence.
Self-sufficiency is the only road to meaningful personal freedom. Dependency always comes with strings attached. Young adults who still live with their parents or let them pay for rent or car payments have to expect unwanted efforts to influence or control their decisions.
Self-sufficiency is an important aspect of responsibility. People of character carry their own weight. They want to free others of the burden of providing for them.
Self-sufficiency is not simply a state of financial independence wished for by parents anxious to reclaim their incomes and homes. Self-sufficiency is, or at least should be, a genuinely prized source of self-respect and esteem, arising from the sense of freedom that comes with knowing we can thrive on our own without relying on the good will and resources of others.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Comments
I listen to you every day on the radio and I love you. Today was an awakening for me. This is something adults need to know, not just young adults. How can I incorp. this for grown adults? Adults have forgotten self-sufficiency.
Posted by: cynthia | March 19, 2008 11:01 AM
Comments: Why have so many young people replaced this youthful hunger for self-sufficiency with an entitlement mentality? Why are so many comfortable with their hands out and indifferent to the idea of keeping their heads high?
Talk to the liberal DEMOCRATS!!! FDR & the chicken in every POT!!! The mentality of TWO cars in every garage. The mentality of a "RIGHT" "to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness"! No one is OWED those things. You have a RIGHT to "PERSUE" those things. THAT is the difference between TODAY and 40 years ago. In today's commentary you ASK WHY!!! Well, just take a LOOK!!!! LIBERAL LEANING DO GOODERS who have CAUSED this problem. GIVING away the farm. GIVING away "entitlments". GIVING people the EXCUSES that they ARE OWED!!!! When you WORK for what you get, you will appreciate what you HAVE!!! NOT like the MUGS
and THUGS of TODAY!!! The GANG BANGERS!!! All THEY know, and are TOLD, by the LIBERALS, by the MEDIA, and by the SOCIAL DO GOODERS, is that THEY "HAVE THE
"RIGHT""!!! Well, POPPY COCK!!!! When the "MORAL MAJORITY" get's off their dead keisters, and takes BACK "OUR" rights and OUR streets and OUR citys, then the entitlement mentality MAY, and I reiterate MAY just come to an end. When the GOVERNMENT "HAND OUT'S" stop, then and MAYBE ONLY then, will people START to
take responsibility again FOR their own welfare. Instead of BEING "ON" WELFARE!!!!
You ask "WHY"!!! Well ther you HAVE it!!!
Posted by: CW | March 19, 2008 2:16 PM
I will post this at my desk at work for all prospective new hire candidates to read as I feel totally ashamed and embarrassed at the sense of entitlement young adults possess in addition to the careless, flagrant attitude toward work ethic and keeping their spending only within their available means.
Posted by: andja marco | March 19, 2008 9:07 PM
RESPONSE FROM MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
Re: CW
As I hope you know, I strive to be scrupulously nonpartisan in these commentaries, but I do respond when I think any purely partisan solution is posed that I think oversimplified the problem.
The entitlement syndrome we found is every bit as strong, if not stronger, among the children of wealthy conservatives who presumably oppose the political philosophies you blame.
We have to think deeper and be more accountable – it is a parenting problem, not a political one.
Michael Josephson
Posted by: Michael Josephson | March 20, 2008 9:46 AM