Entitlement culture

A friend and I were discussing people who feel like they are entitled to something, in many cases anything. I had quite an interesting response or reaction to this discussion. I had worked in the Federal Bureau of Prisons for about 16 years. I don't know how many times an inmate would ask me if he could get a crown on his tooth. Well, I explained to the inmate that it was not in the tax payers best interest to put a crown on his tooth. In the BOP, inmates get basic care. Keep them out of pain, do some routine care when needed, address emergencies daily, provide preventive care when possible. So, now let's look at the welfare populations.
There is an excellent example from today. A patient came in with a tooth ache. She had several piercing, cigarettes in her pocket, BF had lots of ink, both had cell phones. I addressed her problem, as best I could, and wrote her a prescription for an antibiotic for what I diagnosed was an infection in another tooth. Late in the day they called because she was in pain. They said they could not afford the two dollar prescription. My office had given them cash for a prescription the last time they were in the office. We gave it out of our petty cash drawer, or one of my employees gave it to them. My office manager and I discussed what we could do for them, and after listing all her medications, which included Morphine, among other pain meds, and listing all of the 'luxuries' they apparently had money for, we decided NOT to give them the money for the prescription this time.
Many times patients from the welfare system complain that the state does not provide coverage for braces for their children or for themselves. Or won't pay for root canal treatment or crown or bridge work. I often tell these patients that they can get a job and make the money to get that kind of care, but more often than not, they decide to either have teeth pulled, or of course do without the high dollar dental care.
I don't want to leave this blog without saying that there are many patients that want to work. They get out there everyday looking for work. They have a dream of owning their own business, or completing some schooling that will give them a needed skill to become gainfully employed. They have drive and motivation, they HATE being on the public welfare rolls.
We have created a population of dependent wanters. People who just want things to happen but don't do a damn thing to make those things happen. Our current ruling class, the dems, want more of those type of people. For democrats to be successful and to build their party, they need to increase the number of poor. The poorer the better for democrats. The porkulus package has far more money set aside to extend the length of welfare recipients, and to increase the numbers of welfare recipients than it has tax cuts to help businesses hire more people and create more wealth in this country. The package makes work, but does not create a single job. Have you noticed the dems and the pres, already telling people not to expect too much in the way of results from the current porkulus package? It was sold as such a crisis we had to act now, but, oh, by the way, we won't see any results from this for a long time. I am waiting for the announcement of 'Porkulus II, the sequel" coming to a government near you, summer of 2009.