From Greece to Atlantic Canada to “protesters” in Quebec, we’re living in the age of entitlement. That’s the only explanation for the responses we’re hearing from folk asked to recognize this reality: one must work and save, and governments must be judicious with the taxes they receive, if society and indeed civilization are to properly function.
The age of entitlement is everywhere.
With proposed employment insurance (EI) reforms, the response by far too many people has been to assert a right to perfection. That the EI program might one day actually ask people to consider moving to where the jobs are, or to take a job that is less than perfect in some psychological self-actualizing sort of way, has been met with horror by some.
The National Post interviewed Torontonian Adam Labadie, a sound producer, who took EI for a spell rather than work retail.
“You wouldn’t say to a doctor ‘Hey, maybe you should give roller-skating lessons,’” said Labadie to the Post.
I’ve got news for Labadie. Out-of-work physicians may not teach roller-skating, but at least a few professionals from other countries drive taxis until they can upgrade their certifications and skills to match Canadian standards.
They’re not too proud to do whatever it takes to earn a living for themselves and their family.
Or consider another interviewee from the Globe and Mail on the same subject. Nova Scotian Lloyd Robicheau, a fisherman, “warned” the federal Conservatives that EI reform would mean lost votes. Robicheau fishes and farms for seven months a year and draws unemployment insurance for the other five, a practice he’d like to continue.
In Calgary, I heard one respondent to a talk-radio show, an engineer, whine about what a hardship it would be if another bust happened in Alberta and he’d have to move to find a job. He thought EI benefits should be increased for everyone to help them “bridge” until their chosen occupations recover.
It is bizarre that so many think a certain type of job is beneath them. Obviously, it would be nice if everyone could have the dream job from age 15 to 65. But that’s not even close to reality; it’s akin to Peter Pan’s Neverland and utopia.
In the real world – including this author who has dug ditches (I was 15, for my uncle), waited on tables, planted trees and pruned vines – everyone has a time when some jobs are more or less enjoyable than others. And all of the foregoing were great experiences in one way or another.
Only in a world polluted by the notion of perfect entitlements would anyone think it even acceptable to publicly complain about an employment insurance system tweaked to be an insurance system only for those down on their luck. Instead, it’s supposed to be an annual benefit or a “bridge” to be used to refuse honest work until one’s preferred job comes along.
But if the entitlement culture is obvious on that issue, it is in full battle mode on the street of Quebec. Quebec students – some of them, it should be noted, not all of them – are not only unreasonable if they think higher education can continually be financed on a pittance contributed from their own wallet, they are also downright greedy.
Those who make it through some form of higher education will have significantly higher incomes for the rest of their lives when compared with the non-university crowd, whose tax dollars also form part of the massive subsidies for those ridiculous students throwing smokebombs over proposed increases to Quebec tuition rates.
Lucky for the out-of-touch students, they face the weakest premier in the country in the form of Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest, someone silly enough to think a duly-elected provincial government, one put there by adults, should ever have negotiated with students in the first place.
The end result of Quebec’s politics of entitlement – Quebec students are entitled to cheap tuition and Western Canada is entitled to keep subsidizing Quebec governments – is not, as one might assume, just more cheque-writing from Western Canada, though that will continue.
The real endgame is the other obvious entitlement disaster: Greece.
That country demonstrates what happens when too many people think that others should lend them money forever, should never ask for it all back with interest, and how living within one’s means is a quaint notion and that others will always rescue you.
To which one should say: “To those wallowing in entitlement talk, meet Greece – it is your future.” •
