The Age of Entitlement

 

We once were a fair-go society

We cared, showed others empathy

We now have become grasping and greedy

And say what is in it for me?

 

Privileges are now seen as entitlements

Empathy and caring have lapsed

Good manners, consideration for others

Core values have all but collapsed

 

Littering? - It no longer bothers us

We're entitled to drop rubbish all down

We pay hard-earned rates to the council

It's their job for cleaning the ground

 

There's those who take groceries away

In trolleys which belong to the market

And instead of returning them back

Abandon them any place they can park it

 

And then there's the driver who parks

Illegally in a disabled zone

Believing they're fully entitled

To claim any park as their own

 

Young people on buses who don't

Give up their seats to seniors in need

And believe they are fully entitled

To take any seat (it's not greed)

 

Then there's people who work, leaving dogs

To bark all they want while away

“We're fully entitled to do this”

Don't care what you others might say

 

You want to drive in from a side street

But others won't leave you a space

The say they're entitled to stay there

Because they were there in first place

 

Core values have been trashed in the stampede

The stampede to get what we desire

And what once were regarded as privileges

Are now seen as entitlements we require

 

Don Matthews March 2019