They should not be called entitlements.. they are earned benefits!!

[magical thyme]

90. and if you choose not to drive -- which many city-dwellers do choose --

then you are forced to pay for the roads other people drive on.

It's called a social contract. You live in a society and you gain overall by contributing to that society. You may never choose visit a library, but your taxes pay for somebody else to use it. You may never choose to attend a community college, but your taxes help fund it.

You may not directly benefit from every program, but you directly benefit from some and indirectly benefit from others. For example, education levels (and therefore employability) rise, roads exist for those who drive goods to your city or town, or deliver packages to your door, base research (which private corporations can not do since it takes years before profitable) gets done, allowing corporations to subsequently turn the research results into treatments for disease or renewable energy, etc. The community college program enables people to study nursing, pre-med and other needed skills. You therefore indirectly benefit in that there is somebody available to care for you should you land in a hospital.

On the other hand, there are benefits from being part of society that you do directly gain, which somebody else who does not use helps to pay for. If you went to public grammar and high school, that was paid for in part by people who sent their children to private school.

The system of taxation enables us, as a group of people and as individuals, to accomplish and benefit far more than if we all refused to participate because 100% of the benefits didn't go to each of us individually. For example, the mortgage modification program didn't benefit me directly because I saved and bought my house cash. However, if they it puts a floor under the housing market, then I will benefit indirectly in that I'll be able to sell my home and downsize for retirement. Therefore, I support the program and I don't mind that my tax dollars support it. And there is another program right now that I do directly benefit from -- the income-based student loan repayment program -- and that is saving me from being forced to sell my home at half its market value in bankruptcy.

Social Security is part of that social contract. You pay social security taxes to help support the elderly today, so that you in turn will be supported when you are elderly. You may believe you will be one of the lucky ones that is able to save enough to support yourself when you are no longer able to, but as someone who had saved quite a bit and then was repeatedly defrauded and robbed, you can do everything "right" and still have things come out "wrong."

You individually may prefer that the elderly be left in the street to die, but our society as a whole does not want to function in that way for any number of reasons. You may prefer that I be thrown out into the street to die, but I can be a fighter and I suspect you wouldn't want me robbing you to feed my furfamily.

If you don't like the way our society works, you always have the option to move. You could go live off the land in the wilds of Alaska and never pay a dime in taxes. Or you could go to another country without a government and never pay taxes to that government . Somalia comes to mind.