Why we're entitled to more

In today's increasingly efficient world, where everything is faster-paced and we tend to be less altruistic on average to others because there are just more of us and - more importantly - we interact with others more often, I think the driving force of our change in attitudes is not just that we have more opportunities. I think it is also that we think we are entitled to more.

We are entitled to more, perhaps, because we have more activities that we are engaged in - which means more opportunities for rewards. It furthermore may take more work to do all of these things and, with the invention of things like red eye lattes and blackberrys, we can do more work than ever before.

Perhaps this is also because we see others around us taking advantage of these opportunities and actually getting more during life - and we all feel like we should be entitled to the same. It doesn't matter whether we realize that these people have devoted their lives entirely to the achievement of this one goal. We tend to think that everyone is entitled to whatever the greatest-achieving person in a society is entitled. That may be the secret of how inequality can be sustainable: if there is the opportunity for any of us to achieve the highest position in society.

This is also why the unrealistic optimism of American beliefs in self-ownership and initiative have also served as excuses for providing the appropriate support for people born into disadvantaged positions in society. If we cannot acknowledge that some simply cannot achieve higher positions, then we can scarcely be motivated to change this condition.