WARNING: I've been triggered, and a full-bore cranky old man rant that no one asked for or cares about is inbound! I'd like to add my two cents to the "entitlement" discussion surrounding a recent request for special treatment. Without doubt, my thread will get locked, too. But when you're an old man like me, sometimes the cathartic satisfaction gained from an old-fashioned "back in my day" rant is worth the "Ok Boomer" responses! Like so much of the whining over the past decade but especially the past two years, the post in question speaks directly to the sense of entitlement that so many young people feel. The world has been at the fingertips of the instant-gratification generation for their entire lives. When everything comes easily, it's difficult to gain perspective on what it means to EARN something. To many people, "I want" equals "I deserve" and "Others have earned" equals "Then I deserve it, too". "I can't live my life the way I want on what McDonald's pays me! I demand more!". It shifts the responsibility from an individual (who should be constantly looking for ways to improve their skills in order to improve their life station) to the employer. I make pretty good money at my job for one reason only: as a younger man I worked - at great time and expense - to gain a skill that employers find valuable. Sadly, these days compensation for a service is is no longer commensurate with the value of that service (works in both directions, looking at you professional athletes and entertainers). So you end up with people making $18/hr to flip a burger, something that any warm body off the street can do with minimal effort or training. Then the shift leaders who make $18/hr say, "I'm doing more than the fry cook but making the same? I deserve $24/hr!". Then the managers who make $24/hr need a raise... and so on all the way up the chain. McDonald's is forced to make up for this absurdly increased overhead by having automated kiosks in the lobby and voice-recognition AI answering the drive-thru. These seldom work, so everyone complains about McDonald's "trying to save money" instead of addressing the root problem. A job is a privilege, not a right. If you want to earn more money, "git gud". At least McDonald's has the means to react. Three of my favorite local restaurants have closed in the past few years because they can't find enough people to work for a more-than-fair wage, and they can't afford to pay the egregious amount that would retain employees. Horrific service due to under-staffing has become the norm, and we've all experienced it. It used to be that when you got rude or unprofessional service, you'd complain to the manager. I've stopped bothering. Instead, on the rare occasion that I get good service, I call the manager over to compliment the employee. Courteous, respectful service is surprising these days. But that's what happens when compensation is tied not to merit but to how loud someone can shout on social media. A prospective employee doesn't have to be good at a marketable skill, they just have to be good at blaming and complaining. And if identity-politics can give them a leg up, well "all the better". Never in the history of humankind has it been easier to achieve goals unwarranted by a person's merit than today. In my son's school district, the lowest possible score for a test or assignment is 50%. If an assignment is worth 10 points and a student fails to turn it in, their score is 5/10. As a result, kids are gaming the system by doing just enough to get by. Score 9/10 on the first 2 out of 3 assignments, and they can completely blow off the last one, knowing they'll still get a C grade instead of the D- they earned. The lessons being taught are not the lessons being learned. I get it, every generation has said the world is going to hell in a hand basket since the beginning of time, yet we always end up fine. That's true, and will probably end up being true this time, too, even if it takes a bit of market correction to get back on track. But it's undeniable that the incredible pace of technological advancement is vastly increasing the difference between generations today. I am MUCH more like my parents, and they to their parents, than my kids are to me. In many ways that's an incredible gift, but in my estimation it's a gift that is being taken for granted and abused. The very thing that should be empowering people to strive for more is making a generation with a disproportionate number of lazy, entitled "look at me" whiners. This rambling, self-righteous, off-topic and largely pointless post has definitely earned the flaming vitriol that's coming my way in response, so have at it while there's still time!