A right to wanting more
“Entitlement” seems to be the new buzz word going around, often referring to young people who feel that they deserve things and resources that they haven’t earned.
This discourse has influenced a lot of people. For example, the other day, my neighbour was talking about how young people today seem to expect their parents to provide things for them, or not feel the need to work hard for things because they were brought up having everything. He added that “Our generation didn’t have things handed to us on a silver platter.”
I think all generations have blamed the young at some point. I remember my father telling me how his parents used to criticize the young. In a way, this intergenerational conflict is universal, but I think there is something more sinister at play in the use of the word entitlement today: it is part of a political agenda accompanied by austerity measures and is being used to shape thought and policy.
Entitlement is used to describe a situation where people expect certain things from the government, such as social services, pensions, unemployment insurance, in short, social benefits in general. This implies that benefits are a privilege, not a hard won right paid for by all of us. It implies that we should not expect these benefits from the government, even though we pay for them through taxes.
As far as it relates to the youth, we now know this generation is the first generation since the Second World War to be economically worse off than their parents. We see it every day. We hear stories of young people having to live with their parents and having to delay their own life plans because they don’t have enough money, resources, and work in order to start an independent life as it has been with their parents.
Young people today are being paid historically low wages; the same as they were paid 30 years ago. The average real wage has not increased in Canada for 30 years. Good-paying jobs have gone the way of the buffalo.
I think intelligent young people realize that their lives are going to be very different from their parents’ and grandparents’ lives. They realize that when they are older there may not be pensions, unemployment insurance, or social benefits, at least not as they exist today. They see what’s happening in Europe where in some countries pensions have been cut 40 per cent and youth unemployment levels are at 50 per cent.
According to a Mowat Centre study, part-time positions accounted for 89 per cent of job creation between October 2015 and October 2016. We have now close to two million unemployed Canadians. That’s why I cringe when I hear talk about youth and workers being “entitled.” To me, this is just another way of blaming the victim, of scapegoating and trying to blame a vulnerable population.
I don’t think the young have a sense of entitlement. I think they have a right to feel let down and disillusioned by the government-corporate elites running this country. They have the right to what previous generations had: a chance to work and prosper and be better than the generation before them. In light of the reality they live in today, I feel they have a right to feel a sense of indignity, and why not, even anger.
Finally, I think a sense of entitlement is necessary and healthy for all of us to have. A sense of entitlement based on reciprocity and long held principles: we agree to work hard and pay taxes and we expect benefits from the government in our time of need. It’s common sense and has been part of the bargain between citizens and governments since the Second World War.
Photo by ITU Pictures via CC-BY-2.0