Responsibility and Entitlement

Today, I was listening to a CNN broadcast and they were interviewing a man who could afford his mortgage but he decided to return the house to the mortgage company because the house was no longer worth what he had paid for it. He said that he did not feel that the mortgage company had made any false claims. For him, it just made sense to default on the contract because he could rent the same house for $500.00 less than he was paying for his house.

When he was asked if he understood that it would make it harder for other people to get mortgage loans, he said that there was no difference between him defaulting on a contract because it was best for him and for banks to default on their obligations. Basically, if it okay for a business to dump a bad contract for financial reasons, then it was okay for him to do so.

I have made many trips up fool’s hill and I have learned the signs that I’m beginning to take the trip again. When I make a mistake, I own up to it and face the consequences. I cannot get out of personal debt without admitting that I have made mistakes and taking painful steps to correct them. I don’t expect an obligation to go away because I don’t want it any more.

There is great sense of entitlement developing in this country. What has not developed at an equal rate is a sense of responsibility. Every right comes with an equal responsibility. Peter Parker’s (Spiderman) grandfather told him that with great power comes great responsibility. We have great power as individuals in this country. We have the power of the vote and power of influence. We should use it wisely and we should also hold ourselves to the same standards that we expect businesses and government to be held to. We need to make sure that we are exercising personal responsibility. I understand that is not possible to legislate morality. We cannot force business or people to do things that they don’t want to do, but failing to do the honorable almost always results in taking a trip to the top of fool’s hill.