ABSTRACT
Entitlements were utilized by politicians and voters to fill the gap between what the private economy could provide and what the expectations were of the golden years, such as a good education, decent job, and safe neighborhood. Entitlement programs such as social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment, and welfare also work under such a value system, or they work as long as citizens receiving these benefits are part of the set of values. Social Security work for individuals, but it does not work for the United States economy as personal saving is reduced because of the expected certainty of Social Security; essentially, public mandates reduced private saving. Congressional mandates are creating a situation in which it is harder and harder to follow through on the protestant work ethic because entitlement programs, in altering the value system, move some segments away from the protestant work ethic.
