In this week’s Comment for the magazine, I wrote:
A so-called entitlement is a benefit extended to those who meet the lawful requirements, without the need for a specific appropriation. (Under this definition, by the way, a hedge-fund manager’s low tax rate fills the bill as snugly as Grandma’s Social Security check.)
Here’s another definition, from Merriam-Webster:
Entitlements: A government program providing benefits to members of a specified group.
My main point in the piece was that social-insurance or earned-benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare shouldn’t be called “entitlements,” because “entitlements” has a smug, I’ve-got-mine, you-owe-me-a-living sound to it. Calling someone “entitled” or having “a sense of entitlement” is not a compliment. It suggests an arrogant B-list movie star expecting the best table in an exclusive restaurant as a matter of course, or a spoiled heiress going wild in the shoe department at Neiman-Marcus. That’s why conservatives so successfully sought to insinuate “entitlements” into the speech centers of innocent American brains.
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