Entitlement vs Fair Share
When you eat dinner at a restaurant, feel free. When you eat dinner with your family at home, you can’t grab all the meat and leave potatoes and side dishes for others. That’s entitlement vs fair share.
We all have hopes and dreams some of which we can – and others we cannot – afford. Now, at 40 something you get lucky: the family business is passed on to you. All alone, you think of the many secret desires of yours that you could fulfill now. The beautiful places you could visit; the gorgeous chicks just waiting to be picked up by you. After this moment of self-indulgent daydreaming, you realize you have a family to think of, a future to consider, and your business savvy to prove.
Humanity in a larger sense is akin to a family. It may be normal to have unreasonable desires, acting on them however may not be a good idea.
Your youngest kid needs the meat you’ve been eyeing to grow, you don’t. She is your kid, you are responsible for her health and well-being, not to mention her education and future.
Now, the assets of the company you just took over from papa, are tempting. You could make so many of your wild dreams come true but… wait! If you squander the assets, you’ll be seen as a selfish loser. Your father didn’t pass the business to you so you could live out your dreams but better provide for your family.
The moral of the story? We are all a bit selfish but we are not stupid enough not to anticipate the short-term and long-term consequences of our actions.
As much as self-indulgence is tempting, adulthood calls us to put responsibility, first.
You have to consider the future in the decisions you make today. Do you want your children to have what you’ve been given? Use things responsibly. Don’t take more than you need. Don’t live it up at the cost of your children becoming roasted chickens.
What I’m talking about? The use of the Earth’s natural resources. If you take it all for yourself now, you’ll be taking what’s yours and their ENTIRE share. (There won’t be any natural resources left for them.) Would you eat your child’s ENTIRE dinner?….
Suppose you indulge in petroleum no matter what, climate change will be accelerated: there’ll be more “natural” disasters. In that case, the temperature will rise for everybody, including your children and grandchildren, many will perish.
What will be your legacy? Will you be remembered as a wise host or a Grinch who stole the future?
