Having expectations of rewards without work

America has got a bad case of the “give me attitude.”

This is a condition where most people want as much as they can get while doing as little as they can. This can be found everywhere, including a college campus. Walking through the halls of various buildings, one can often hear things like “I deserved a better grade” and “I can put that off until later.” They don’t put in the work and yet they wonder why their grades are bad.

Situations like this are evident on the national level as well. An example of this is the welfare program. The welfare program had many problems until the welfare reform law was passed in 1996. The federal government was running the welfare program and it was highly unregulated. People had concerns, stating some were abusing this program to get as much as they could out of it. They did so by not applying for jobs and having more kids to receive money and aid. For these reasons, the law was passed to give control of the welfare programs to each of their respective states. Texas has since set guidelines and time limits. If the person doesn’t meet them, their aid is taken away.

When it comes to the students, some of them are just plain lazy. Some of this might stem from students dreaming and thinking they will become the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. But the reality is that’s almost impossible to do. According to the 2009 Forbes 400 list, there are only 274 self-made billionaires in the world. When you consider that there are more than 30 billion people in the world, that’s a relatively small number.

Another thing is how people blame others. When the going gets rough, it just seems easier to blame others rather than stick it out and try to solve the problem or make tough decisions.

An example of this would be President Bush getting most, if not all, of the blame for the Iraq War. It was a turbulent time after September 11. He chose to act and go after the people who committed this terrorist act. Over time it seemed like everyone got angrier that the war kept continuing. But you have to put yourself in his shoes. What would you, the average person, have done? If we did nothing there would be a bigger risk of another attack. Because of the war, a dictator’s regime has collapsed, the people of Iraq have been given their country back, terrorists have been captured and are now in places where they can’t harm anyone else.

Another example of this would be FEMA’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina. Many people criticized FEMA for their lack of leadership and mismanagement following Hurricane Katrina. A huge hurricane just hit half of the country causing millions of dollars in damages and claiming thousands of lives. Trying to help the thousands left stranded is a huge task and they tackled this situation head on. Making those decisions is hard and it’s easy to judge something when you don’t understand what’s going on.

Some of the best things in life are earned by putting in a little work. If everyone went through life without complaining, making excuses or blaming others, the world would be a better and more productive place.