In response to "Death to the self-help movement?"

In response to “Death to the self-help movement?”
Frequent contributor LARRY WINGET wrote a piece on “The corruption of the self-help movement” (see page 27) that originally appeared online. Many of our readers had very strong opinions about that article. See their comments below.

Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, but you are lumping all of them together. A lot of our systems over the past few years have been abused by those who feel they are owed. Our system is so loaded with errors, and people abuse the system by lying on forms. What about our [government] representatives setting an example for the people they represent? It all started somewhere and was allowed to be abused. In order to correct this mess, what would be a good place to start? People are just fed up with all the oversight and no one taking steps to help correct our systems.
– Sue

Remember when teachers, public employees, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half our 401(k)s, took trillions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?
– Jake Miller

There are a lot of things wrong with the self-help movement, but moving from a help-yourself to an entitlement mentality is not one of them. Entitlement comes from a family culture of over-dependency resulting from not having to worry about whether there is anything for dinner (or where it came from). It starts early in childhood–kids catch it from their parents. Your description of the self-help movement is accurate enough, but I don’t get the connection between it and entitlement. If there is one, either there’s more to your column or I’m an idiot.
– William