Recent riots in the United Kingdom demonstrate the cultural distortion created by a welfare state.

Even without personal effort, generations of beneficiaries feel entitled to a standard of living equal to the working middle class. Much of their livelihood is provided by others, but entitlement has obscured gratitude and emphasized expectation. As governments run out of other people’s money and begin to implement austerity measures, the entitlement culture envisions the loss as an injustice. Beneficiaries envy the earned wealth of the middle class, demand a larger unearned share and demonstrate destructive resentment when denied.

The trend in America is evident. Without timely changes to entitlement qualifications, collapse is inevitable. Violent revolt is ‘coming to a theater near you.’

Chet Barber

Vicksburg