The word entitlement or entitled is not an attractive word and politicians who deep down want to cut Social Security disability or retirement benefits use the word entitlement to describe Social Security or Medicare as a wedge making some people feel like the benefits are not earned.
If you search “entitled definition” on Google the following definition is given: “believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.” This definition does not paint a positive description of a person or thing that is labeled as entitled or an entitlement. Neither is the sentence provided after the definition, which is as follows: “his pompous, entitled attitude.”
This definition works for people who want to make it seem like people on Social Security retirement or disability benefits want something for nothing, when in fact they worked all their lives to earn the benefits that will end up meeting only a fraction of the income they earned while working.
In an article in Salon, Theodore Marmor described the dangers of using these types of words as a way to blame beneficiaries.
“Using the entitlement category in two senses is confusing and in that respect harmful. What citizens believe about the appropriateness of a program is a distinct concept from the budgetary rules about changing its provisions. Both are important, but when was the last time you, the reader, saw this distinction explained when the entitlement term was used? Instead, “entitlement” is used like a four-letter word in diatribes about the supposedly troubled future of social insurance programs,” he said.
The fact is people who receive Social Security retirement, disability or Medicare benefits paid taxes to the federal government for years to be “entitled” to these benefits. Think of it as a pension earned through work. A pension is given typically after a number of years of service are provided in a profession, and Social Security benefits are earned after a certain amount of time and taxes are paid to qualify for benefits.
