"Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than the next, moves slowly, over periods of years from one part of the earth to another." -Paul Bowles
Friday, 20 March 2009
Entitlement
One of the things that gets under my skin about Americans is their sense of entitlement. I was going to say people, but it does seem to me that Americans are worse than the average (at least the average Australian). It's never bothered me to pay taxes, and I've never felt as though I pay too much, in any country I live in. Now that I've had experience working in the public sector, I wonder how the measly amount we actually pay in taxes manages to foot the bill. Well, it doesn't really, in many cases, does it. I'm glad our president agrees with me that the sense of entitlement many people (ahem, AIG execs for instance) is an issue. This seems to be a recurrent theme this week in the life of Suzer, and there are a few people I've come across who I'd have loved to tell to get over themselves, but I've restrained myself. Anyway, here's to the weekend.
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2 comments:
Come live in Canada...then the amount of taxes you pay (we pay 52% of my husband's salary, PLUS 13% sales tax) and surely it will piss you off. Especially when crappy access to medicine and education is what you get in return.
Canadians don't generally grumble about the taxes they pay (mostly because most people don't know any different). When we first moved the US, I was surprised how much Americans went on about paying taxes. And we paid very little in the US compared to Canada!
I guess it's all relative.
I'm with you Suzer. One of the things that I don't miss about our homeland is that sense of entitlement. I'm happy to pay my taxes here because I'm getting pretty close to free health care among other things that seem to be anathema to the American psyche.
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