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Our quick fix instant gratification western society has led to a steady decline of morals and personal responsibility. Once upon a time not so long ago, people readily took personal responsibility for their lives; their financial and physical well being and that of their families. So what happened, why are we taking less personal responsibility?

It's not my fault

We in the Western world have thanks to media and store front law offices, developed the me first, and it's never my fault' mentality. If we're late for work, it becomes the fault of the idiot manufacturer of our alarm clock; the idiots in front of us driving too slowly or the fault of idiot urban planners who didn't designate enough free parking spaces. Whatever happened to installing two alarm clocks if we are sound sleeper leaving the house ten minutes earlier to avoid traffic and taking responsibility to pay for parking?

Our Courts in the USA and Canada are overwhelmed with non-sensical law suits, many filed under the It's not my fault' pretext. Case in point is a lawsuit of a 17 year old girl whose mother decided to sue the school board because her daughter fell asleep driving home. Her mother maintained if the school had not given her daughter so much homework, she would not have fallen asleep at the wheel! Whatever happened to going to bed a little earlier?

I am entitled to be in debt

We want it now, we should have it now, and by George we are going to have that new electronic gadget/ big home/ better vehicle today! Never mind the fact that the payments are going to cripple us, or that we're going to pay 18, 25, 30 or even 35 percent interest, we are going to have that new item.

Prior to the 1960's when charge cards, now credit cards went mainstream, we actually use to save up to purchase things we wanted. While it is perhaps unrealistic to expect American family homes to only have one computer/television/DVD/stereo /vehicle, we really are accumulating too many personal possessions, and paying for them is killing us. One of the primary reasons we purchase things in not just duplicate or triplicate, is that we have simply forgotten how to share. Or how to budget our savings for things we truly want or need.

I am entitled to start over and over and over..

No longer are people getting married and staying married, now when the going gets tough one or both parties get going; to the divorce lawyers. Divorce is at an all time high in the USA and second, third and fourth marriages don't fare any better especially if the couples have lived together for any amount of time beforehand.

Six in ten children in the USA are born out of wedlock, and we now have the only generation in our modern day elementary school system that doesn't do family trees as an exercise. Why bother, many children are never sure who their birth fathers are anyway. Foster care is at an all time high, and more and more children are being raised on welfare or state assistance.

Taking personal responsibility for ourselves involves having a personal code of conduct on how we want to live our lives in our own little corner of society. For any society to undergo change, change must begin with the individual. Pay your bills on time, if you can't seek the services of a financial counsellor and consolidate your payments. Cut up all but one or two essential credit cards, get a second job, move to a smaller house, manage with less stuff and embrace your personal relationships as they more than anything define your character.

It is all time we took responsibility we are the only generation in history to need bigger homes just to house our stuff. After all, there is NO u-haul behind the Hearst. Perhaps we simply needed reminding of that

Learn more about this author, Melissa D. Ing.
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