One of the most destructive desires that can infect humanity is the compulsion to seek something for nothing.  This impulse contains a passive “entitlement” flavor, and an aggressive “gambling” characteristic as well.  Each of these compulsions are equally dangerous, and will grow to dominate your life if they are not arrested and defeated.

The passive manifestation of ‘something for nothing’ is the entitlement mentality that has held western civilization in its grips for the past half-century, and does not appear to be loosing its hold.  The entitlement mentality is rooted in an insistence that somebody else subsidize your existence.  With large government liabilities for social insurance and health care that the current leadership is attempting to expand, there is an ever growing population whose livelihood depends on subsidy from the public treasury, meaning that their votes are perpetually for sale to whomever offer the most ‘free’ benefits.

The dark side of this phenomenon is that nothing comes for free.  All entitlements and subsidies must be paid for by somebody.  Thus, the entitlement mentality is really an insistence that somebody else should work so that I don’t have to.  Over time, this mentality creates large amounts of idle labor, stifles productivity and innovation, and eventually results in economic collapse as the public is no longer able to pay for the entitlements, the government can no longer get anybody to buy the debt, and the currency becomes so weak from inflation that it is not accepted for trade, entitlements can no longer be paid, and the dependent people are suddenly forced to fend for themselves.

The next iteration of this destructive desire is the “gambling” impulse, or attempts to get rich quick.  Late night television is replete with infomercials advertising clever methods of making large amounts of money in a short period of time.  Frequently, these schemes are articulated as having little or no risk.  In practice, all of these behaviors contain the same fundamental danger.  This danger is that the desire for fast wealth frequently induces people to gamble on a big windfall.  Wins whet the appetite for more easy money, and losses incite a desire to get the money back.  This creates a compounding cycle of more gambling with bigger and bigger stakes until a loss is finally incurred that is so big that it results in bankruptcy.

It is quite clear that neither of these situations is remotely desirable.  Both are caused by a desire to get ‘something for nothing’ and both can be prevented by internalizing the fact that the fabled ‘free lunch’ does not exist.  Success is built on the realization that real value must be created in order for a strategy to be viable.  Whenever your success depends on the benevolence of others, or manipulation of markets you can be assured that you are on the precipice of a slippery slope that could end in your financial destruction.