Entitlements

   "The rich are different from you and me." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
   "Yes; they have more money." -- Ernest Hemingway

   "You should know your place, f___ plebs." -- Tory politician Andrew Mitchell, to police officers at 10 Downing Street

   From one perspective, money is the only difference between rich people and those who are not. Rich folks are just as wise or foolish, just as courteous or rude, just as talented or clumsy as the rest of the population. But from another perspective, one held by many of the wealthy, being rich "entitles" them to respect and deference -- a one-way attitude that, many of them believe, they need not show to the unwealthy. 
  When a wealthy political candidate in America warns that 47 percent of the population believe they are "victims," and that they are "entitled" to handouts from the government, he shows not only a haughty ignorance of reality, but also a lack of respect for others not of his same "class."
   Money, in and of itself, cannot buy respect. Nor can it buy character.