[Traveler]

I thought I would start this thread because most people do not understand how entitlement oriented we all have become, what their entitlement mentality does for them or what it costs them. I will begin with my own eye opening experience. Some years ago I was one of 3 principle engineers in a leading engineering company that dominated their market with an ownership of 80%. I could not imagine a better life. I received yearly bonuses, stock options and all the benefits we have gotten use to in our American work force. The company I worked for made some serious management mistakes and the economy took a down tern. Major layoffs were eminent. A VP friend of mine warned me that two of the three principle engineers would be laid off in 6 months.

I began looking but quickly found that there were little opportunities for a senior engineer. I would have accepted even an offer for half my salary – but no employer believed I would stay. Then I was contacted by a company that knew of me indirectly (through other engineers they had hired) wanting to use me as a consultant. Long story short I doubled my pay and started a consulting company of one employee.

I transitioned very quickly from an entitlement mentality to a non-entitlement mentality. As a consulting engineer I am paid only for work I do. I do not get a dime paid vacation or sick leave. I do not get any insurance benefits, I pay all my social security (no company contributions) and I have no guarantees of anything. At anytime I can be told my contract is over and no one has to give any reason and I have no hope of any kind of discrimination claim – ever – even if there is obvious and blatant discrimination. I have only one entitlement – my pay for what I do.

At first it was really hard to think things through. My wife would want me to take a week off for vacation. Taking a week off would cost us $5,000 before we spent a dime on the vacation. That was a hard pill to swallow. But I did learn that I could do all the things I have ever done but I now realized what the price tag was and I could decide if it was worth it. I am convinced that most of us would not be willing to pay the price we pay for our entitlement benefits. I have discovered that I do not want the best coverage health insurance. In fact I currently carry a $10,000 deductible. But what is wild; I have negotiated a cash deal with my doctor that bypasses all the paper work for them and I see him for regular checkups that are less than my co-payments use to be.

I have adjusted and I am better off for it. But what I have come to realize is that everybody talks about the entitlement of others – but fail to see their own entitlement mentality. I am convinced that without entitlements most workers would soon be out of a job – especially management. But can you imagine what would have happened in the banking industry if those responsible for misuse of loans got no pay and no benefits for their effort plus they lost their jobs as soon as a problem or loss was discovered? We can imagine how a non-entitlement mentality would affect politics?

Entitlements are out of control and it is not the Democrats fault or the Republicans. It is the countries fault – but we do believe that we are entitled to politicians that represent us – even though we do not follow up to insure that they do. We think we are entitled to businesses that do not cheat us – even though we refuse to do our home work before we enlist their services.

But worse of all we think we are entitled to live to blame everybody but ourselves for being entitlement minded.

The Traveler