Society has given you a load of free crap

Hiski's comment reminded me - and I have probably written about it before and will write again:

What's exactly the problem of the people who just love to tell everyone else how society has given them this and that and how they should be grateful? Just where the fuck do they imagine the society's money comes from, if not the citizens' pockets? Who are we supposed to be grateful to for the "free" stuff? We are the ones paying for it.

When people live together in a society it's convenient to pay for some of the things together rather than each paying for himself or herself. Roads, police, street cleaning, education, at least some health care, etc. That's why we have taxes and public services. So why is it that in some people's minds the money that we spend by paying taxes and getting public services somehow becomes a gift that the society bestows on us and that we should be grateful for?

Your parents' taxes pay for your "free" school lunches, and for your "free" schools too. When you go to a doctor in the public health system, you are paying for it. The fact that you pay when the taxes get deducted from your paycheck and not when you get a bill is not essential, at least for the purpose of gratitude.

Of course there are people who give nothing and get everything - for example those who were born disabled, but that's not the point, and the people who say "you should be grateful" don't mean specifically them. And of course some people pay more than they get and some get more than they pay, but that is not the point either. At least I don't usually see people who say "you should be grateful to society for free this-and-that" also say "society should be grateful for you for paying taxes", or even "society should be grateful to rich people for paying taxes".