# Let's come up with a new term for "entitlement programs" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 13, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-come-up-with-a-new-term-for-entitlement-programs/782117 "2017-03-13T21:43:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-come-up-with-a-new-term-for-entitlement-programs/782117/21 "2017-03-14T19:03:35Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > Exactly. Or maybe even leaning towards implying that these programs are earned (which in some ways they are). > > It’s like this – you can be for legalized abortion or against it, but few actually term their beliefs that way. No, you are Pro Choice or Pro Life. We need a term for Social Security and Medicare that underscores that these are not programs for “those people” getting “free stuff.” I believe there is opposition to this notion in left-wing circles. It comes up in the context of whether these benefits can/should be cut for richer people. One argument against this is that these are not government handouts, such that richer people don’t need them, but are simply money that these people have earned and paid for over the course of their working lives. The counter-argument in favor of means-testing them is that no that’s not true, they’re a government social assistance program like any other and shouldn’t be paid (at least to the same extent) to people who don’t really need it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-come-up-with-a-new-term-for-entitlement-programs/782117/22 "2017-03-14T21:28:23Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > IMHO - Unfortunately, the term “entitlement program” has been hijacked as a political term, usually intended to be a “dog-whistle” to indicate “those people” getting “free stuff” paid for with “MY tax dollars”. I use scare-quotes to highlight the emotionally charged use of this language in partisan political discourse. > > In that context, I can understand the desire to come up with a new term, in order to take back the original, politically neutral, meaning. 100% in agreement with this. I call such programs part of the social safety net and I don’t mind paying taxes for them at all. I am just glad I am fortunate enough to be the donor rather than the donee. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-come-up-with-a-new-term-for-entitlement-programs/782117/23 "2017-03-14T21:58:59Z")
I don’t think anyone has mentioned government and military retirements and military benefits as ‘entitlement program.’ These are also expensive programs where the government has made a promise to pay up in the future rather than now. I would argue that most of those promises were over-generous when made and should maybe even be rethought at some point but that’s no reason to change the term. Welfare is not an entitlement program. That term is used to make people on welfare sound greedy when in fact it’s our elderly, civil servants and veterans who receive the etitlements. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-come-up-with-a-new-term-for-entitlement-programs/782117/24 "2017-03-14T22:12:21Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Do you have a cite for it being a euphemism? As far as I know, it’s just a simple descriptive term describing programs where ‘you’re automatically entitled to this benefit if you meet certain criteria’. Sure. [http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/09/magazine/on-language.html?pagewanted=all](http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/09/magazine/on-language.html?pagewanted=all) “For many, the new word was a euphemism for welfare, which once was a euphemism for relief.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-come-up-with-a-new-term-for-entitlement-programs/782117.md?page=1)