American Entitlements

Americans aren't entitled to jobs, food, medical care or housing. If someone is jobless, homeless, sick or hungry, it is considered to be their own fault. The only exceptions are children and their mothers, and veterans. Children and their mothers are entitled to welfare, while the employed scream about the unfairness of paying people to have children. Veterans aren't entitled to a job, or a house, or food, but they are treated with sympathy by the employed and the media, because they sacrificed for our freedom and all that. That is, as long as they're not in your face, demanding spare change.

Americans aren't entitled to clean air or water, or safe food, according to the corporations who have rolled out propaganda campaigns to roll back legislation giving us those rights. Only tree-huggers want such things, we are told. And tree-huggers are bad. They want to protect trees and animals instead of letting people have jobs destroying them.

But, by God, Americans are entitled to some things. They're entitled to cheap gas and SUVs. They're entitled to use as much water, electricity and oil as they can afford. They're entitled to invade other countries at will. They're entitled to tell people around the world how they should live and what their governments should do. They're entitled to cheap commodities that other people make at low wages. And they're entitled to throw everything away, as long as it's in a landfill and not on the street. It looks bad to have trash on the street.