Excerpt taken from the interview of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, taken from the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website :

” I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem, it is the government’s job to cope with it!’ or ‘I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!’ ; ‘I am homeless, the government must house me!’ and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society?

There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.

It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour, and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation. “

Quoting letter by Alvin Tan, from The Straits Times (February 22, 2012) Forum -

” We (Singaporeans) complain whenever our expectations, even unrealistic ones, are not met. Not enough places in top schools? The government should expand enrollment in these schools, never mind that it is an oxymoron as anything “top” is always limited in number. Not enough flats in mature estates? The government should build more, and so on. A pervasive “entitlement mentality” is detrimental to building a more resilient country and economy. We have a personal responsibility to the community we live in. “