If one more person calls my hard earned Social Security an Entitlement. ...

[JDPriestly]

71. The word, "entitle" comes from the French entitler

meaning to "give a title to."

The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford University Press (1966). Etymology does not change over time.

When you own something, you have a title to it. When you record your ownership in a property with the government of the county in which you live, you "record your title." When you sell a property that you own, you transfer the "title."

We normally think of an entitlement to land as existing because of a transfer of ownership from one who previously had the title to one who is now the owner and therefore now entitled to claim to own the title to the land.

Entitlements belong to the people who have their title, the people who own them. Same with Social Security.

The people who paid into Social Security are very much entitled to the benefits, their compensation from it. They own the fund and are entitled to their pay.

It's like an insurance policy. You pay the premiums and when a qualifying event occurs the insurer pays you.

Here, you pay your premiums in the form of payroll taxes as you work and when you hit retirement age, you are entitled to your benefits. The money belongs to you. It does not belong to the insurer or the US government when a qualifying event occurs.

Anybody who refers to Medicare and Social Security as "entitlements" implying that people who are receiving benefits from those programs are getting some form of charity or welfare are simply wrong. They do not know what the word "entitlement" means.