Conner Dwinnell of the College Conservative has a suggestion for fixing America’s entitlement problem, look to Ronald Reagan.

The Reagan Model Fix to Our Entitlement Culture

If there’s one thing that’s sapping the life out of our economy, it’s the rapidly spreading, virus-like entitlement mentality.  When did the American dream change from “even though I have nothing, I can make something of myself” to “someone else should solve my problems so I don’t have to worry anymore”?  This trend in popular thought is bad for politics, bad for our economy, and most importantly, it’s bad for those who embrace it.

Fast food workers in New York have recently gone on strike claiming poor working conditions and demanding an increase in minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour.  A woman recently said of her job in USA Today “it’s noisy, it’s really hot, fast, they rush you.  Sometimes you don’t even get breaks.”  Have we completely forgotten what fast food is?

Look, I wouldn’t be arguing about this if I didn’t have some sort of experience in the matter.  I worked in a fast food restaurant for a little over six months, and to be honest it was all of those things; the restaurant was loud, the kitchen and counter areas got boiling hot, we were expected to provide excellent service extremely quickly, and when it came to closing time, there was often a decent amount of physical labor involved.  And no one wants to do calculus homework when they get off work past midnight.

But I applied for that job.  Despite how terribly stressful the work could be at times, I never asked for a raise and I never expected more than I was promised when I was hired.  After all, I had agreed to work there, had agreed to the hourly wage they had started me at, and in turn was expected to do the work they asked of me.