Charles Sykes has an incisive commentary in Fiscal Times about the transformation of people's wants into taxpayers' obligations:
The Entitlement States of America: We Want More!. Here is the bottom line:
(W)ants have been transformed into “rights” in America and ultimately into obligations and entitlements. The process can be illustrated this way: “I want you to buy me lunch. Therefore, I need lunch. And if I need something, I have a right to it – and you, therefore, have an obligation to pay for it.”
The equation looks like this: Wants = needs = rights = obligations. The laundry list goes far beyond free lunch to include free health care, free cell phones, free birth control, free mortgage bailouts – and on and on.
