If you leave a person in a bubble of constant privilege for too long, the normal boundaries the rest of us live by start to disappear, and entitlement can quickly take their place.
There is always that one customer who demands royal treatment, a neighbor who ignores rules or even some family members who act like everyone else exists to serve their needs.
And we are all familiar with stories of certain celebrities going above and beyond, showing that entitlement can reach truly ridiculous levels.
Whilekarmadoes catch up with a few of them, most people go through life completely scot-free, floating along in their own little bubble.
When theRedditcommunity was asked, "What's the worst level of entitlement you've ever seen?" — it unmasked some people at their most narcissistic and oblivious.
Bluetooth speaker or cell phone conversations on public transit. Especially if it's the first train in the morning.
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My dad got a new coworker who was also new in town, so my parents invited him and his wife over for dinner one night. Dinner included fresh vegetables from my mom's vegetable garden. My mom also gave them some extra tomatoes and zucchini to take home.A few days later, my mom was washing dishes and looked out the window to see the wife crouching in her vegetable garden, stealing as many veggies as she could fit into her bags, including things my mom had plans for and was not planning to give away. She had scaled the fence to get inside.
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A coworker of mine threw a fit because I won a large glass jar of gummy candies and she demanded to our director that it needed to either be in the break room for communal snacking or given to her because "I don't have a family and don't understand what struggling was".This was over gummy candies.
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While consumerism and capitalism play a major role in how we see ourselves, entitlement is also shaped bysocial media, mainstream cultural messages, and technology. All of this makes it easier than ever to assume the world will bend to our desires and needs.
Studiesin psychology note that these trends are shifting our priorities: people are more focused on their own rights and comfort than on responsibility towards others.
"If people feel they are entitled to consume, they see consuming as an expected reward for behaving in a certain way," writesSue LT McGregorof Canada's Mount Saint Vincent University in her 2022 study.
I worked at a high end car dealership. A woman (50's) purchased a car, then called 4-5 days later and said "the car just stopped" on the freeway. We sent a tow truck and discovered she'd run out of gas. She wanted the dealership to waive the tow bill because her salesman failed to tell her she'd have to put fuel in the car.
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American Lady in Ireland insisting the Subway queue begins from where she stands (collection side). Literally insisting. Everyone ignored her. She caught up eventually.
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The patient who came in today, December 9th in the year of our Lord 2025, and wanted all his dental work done before the end of the year as if he is the only patient our clinic has.
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Parents traveling with young kids often assume other passengers should move so they can sit together. I'm not handing over the premium seat I paid for to sit in a cramped economy spot instead.
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Entitlement shows up in a lot of places — in viral videos of shoppers yelling at retail workers, travelers demanding airline perks they haven't paid for like a window seat, or people cutting lines just because they feel they can.
Scholarsagree that entitlement is traditionally a "maladaptive trait" which leads to narcissism, conflicts with others, and affects overall mental health.
This can happen because entitled people might tend to lash out or get frustrated when things do not go their way. It can ultimately put a strain on relationships and their overall environment.
My spoiled brat cousin got mad the his mom didn't give him the master bedroom in her 1st home.
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There was a real estate agent in town who took a couple to view a house for sale.While doing the showing, the potential buyers noticed a fruit tree. They asked if they could have some, of the real estate agent, who agreed. They picked the tree clean and left.Just straight up stole all the fruit from someone's tree.
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The Edward Jones financial advisor that parked in handicapped parking every day for 3 years until she finally got a $500 ticket! She tried to force the property owners to pay for it since they knew she was using that space and never said anything to her about moving.
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I was placing asphalt at this medical school and I see this petty young lady is wearing these fancy flip-flops, "Excuse me miss you don't want to walk on that asphalt its 325 degrees." And with utter contempt she said "Excuse you, Im going to ba a DOCTOR!" She charges past me, almost get run over by the roller, realizes it ITS HOT owowowowow and then walked right on to the fresh tack (gooey sticky tar that binds the layers together) looses a flip flop, trips and glares at me with scapels for eyes. I had to walk away cause it was too funny.Apparently she complained cause some big wig came down an hour later, superintendent told him off, we are not responsible for idiots who ignore warnings not to be stupid.
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Contrary to what the entitled might want to achieve, they are often far from the happiest.
Experts believe that life rarely hands out everything we feel we deserve, and those with a strong sense of entitlement can be left feeling disappointed.
"When people think that they should have everything they want — often for nothing — it comes at the cost ofrelationshipswith others and, ultimately, their own happiness,"Julie Exline, co-author of a study on entitlement, was quoted as saying in a press release.
Worked with a woman who was flying with a bunch of our coworkers. She was worried that a connecting flight would get diverted due to weather. She, just her, decided to go to the desk and demand that they change her flight.The original flight landed in time, everyone else boarded and she demanded to get her old seat back on the original flight. "It's only been 30 minutes, why can't I have it back"She's retelling me this and acting like she's the victim. She just couldn't comprehend that the flight was full. Her seat was given away to someone on standby. And the flight she changed to would be there in 30 minutes.
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Contrary to what the entitled might want to achieve, they are often far from the happiest.
Experts believe that life rarely hands out everything we feel we deserve, and those with a strong sense of entitlement can be left feeling disappointed.
"When people think that they should have everything they want — often for nothing — it comes at the cost ofrelationshipswith others and, ultimately, their own happiness,"Julie Exline, co-author of a study on entitlement, was quoted as saying in a press release.
My cousin bought his eldest daughter a car as a surprise gift after she passed her driving test. She refused it as it was the wrong colour.
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When I was a kid, my parents were friends with another couple. They had met through church and eventually hired the husband (his company) to build our house. They were friends ever since.Once the housing market wasn't doing too well, the husband ended up making a prayer request in church. Tearfully, he told everyone they were on the verge of losing their house because he couldn't find enough work to pay the bills. My parents ended up inviting them over for dinner and then afterwards, presented them with a check. I have no idea how much it was, but it was enough to save their house. I remember them both sobbing in our kitchen.That was to be the end of it, but the next week we went to church, things took a turn. People were whispering and staring at us. Eventually, someone took my parents to the side and explained what was going on. This couple had been going up to our mutal friends, asking for their "advice".They told everyone that my parents had given them money to save their home but upon reflection, realized that this amount of money could fund their dream vacation to Las Vegas. They were asking people if they should use the money as intended, or if they should go on their once-in-a-lifetime dream trip and gamble it, accepting, of course, that this would likely end the friendship.I'm not sure if they thought people would be on their side or what, but everyone was pretty appalled. It ended the friendship instantly and they never spoke again. Even as a kid it was absurd to me that they would make the choices they did.
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I was on the bus. A guy sneaks in the back door of the bus and the drivers sees him. He starts yelling at the guy to pay the fare or get off the bus. The guy is yelling back at the driver, "You will talk to me with respect! Don't you try to disrespect me!" This thief that got caught trying to steal a bus ride actually thought he deserved respect for stealing and delaying all the fare paying passengers. Apparently, he never learned that respect is earned. I wish I could say I was surprised.
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Entitlement is not always personal, it can also be socially reinforced.
Studiesshow that wealth and privilege lead to higher feelings of entitlement and even narcissism. This may be because their position makes special treatment seem normal or even expected.
It is no wonder we see so many stories of celebrities acting like they own the world — from James Corden being banned from aNew Yorkrestaurant for yelling at the staff over an omelette, to Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber being accused of illegally using disabled parking spaces.
Because when privilege goes unchecked, it is easy to see how entitlement can reach absurd levels.
This is from a group of people rather than a person: in my area there is a fox hunt, it is people riding on the back of horses chasing a fox. They ride through farm land if they have permission to do so. My cousin was involved (she is a horse girl and was never bright) but the land owner wants to build something on the land, a new house and needs permission from the local planning authority. The hunt group hears about it and are upset as the building would disrupt an area where they able to get a good gallop with their horses while hunting on his land, he had always given permission.The group gets organised via an email thread and lodge a planning objection to the project. The project gets rejected and land owner finds out the hunt lodged the objection and he is pissed. Do not if the project would have gone through without the objection. The hunt are delighted with themselves, they start making a thing to lodge objections for anything that will affect them.When the time for the hunt comes round the hunt group ask for permission to use his land and he is in surprisingly says no. The lady in charge of the hunt is shocked by it and is wondering why he is saying no. He bans them from ever using his land again.This happened over 20 years ago and there is still drama around it. The hunt groups lodging objections got them in trouble with more farmers and they finally stopped.I dislike the hunt group even though I know people in it, my brother has never given permission for them to use his land since my father died.
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Buying a cup of tea at the library a few years for 90p (those were the days), the girl serving took my £1 coin, shut the till and said my tea would be ready shortly.When I asked for my change, she moodily opened the till again to get it, and as she handed it over said "Oh yes, 10p?"Obvs it's about the principle not the amount, although I was unemployed and pretty broke at the time. No way I was letting her decide to just keep my money like that.
Entitlement is not always personal, it can also be socially reinforced.
Studiesshow that wealth and privilege lead to higher feelings of entitlement and even narcissism. This may be because their position makes special treatment seem normal or even expected.
It is no wonder we see so many stories of celebrities acting like they own the world — fromJames Cordenbeing banned from a New York restaurant for yelling at the staff over an omelet, to Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber beingaccusedof illegally using disabled parking spaces.
Because when privilege goes unchecked, it is easy to see how entitlement can reach absurd levels.
Kevin Spacey, refusing to put a cigarette out in a non-smoking restaurant. Resulting in the server getting fired.
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Oh that would be my ex.She didn't like her college room so she somehow got her family to get her a music scholar's room which was about 1000sqft and had a grand piano in it.She didn't play the piano. Some talented musician got looked over for this exclusive room.
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I don't know if these are the absolute worst, but they're the first two things I thought of.One time I was in the TSA line, and there were a few guys in business suits waiting behind me. I think a machine went down or something, because we were standing there for quite some time. One of the guys behind me started getting aggravated and yelled at one of the TSA agents asking what the problem was. "We're first class!!" I heard him say. He really thought his first class ticket made him more important or something.The second situation was with my mom. She and I were talking about her ex boyfriend who'd just passed away. They were together for a couple years at most, and they split probably three years before he passed. We then got on the subject of life insurance, and she felt like she was entitled to some of his life insurance. They had been split for years, never married, and never even lived together. Why would he put her on his life insurance? That one still boggles my mind.
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Had a friend in college whose mother lived 4 hours away from our student housing. Friend refused to do any housework or laundry or take plates/garbage out of her room. Instead she made her mom drive 4 hours and come clean her room when enough of us complained. Her mom didn't bother to teach her daughter how to do anything herself. Her mom gladly did it unfortunately.One time she did ask me to show her how to do laundry because her mom was really sick and couldn't drive over one month. But next month was right back to summoning her servant-mother.
Worked with a guy who came to work 10 to 15 minutes late every single day and pretended like it was no big deal. We work in a hospital. You cannot leave your shift until you give report to the next shift so essentially he was forcing his coworkers to stay late every single day until he showed up.He was called out on it by his coworkers and he would just scarf and say "it's 10 minutes you guys are overreacting!". It took reporting him to the management a dozen times before they finally said something to him. He got written up, and was good for a couple of weeks, but then started doing it again. He was written up again. Eventually, I guess he figured it wasn't worth the hassle and he left to go work in a nursing home.
Worked at a hotel and this couple was complaining that our bartender wasnt making the drinks strong enough (he was following state issued rules). They said 'hes nice, but we just wanted a little more!" well my boss requested that he get to handle itSo they told their story and ended it with "we can stay anywhere in town! but we stay here because of the location and the staff!"Boss kinda nods along and says "well thats not true, i know for a fact that we banned from the Umstead, and are also banned at the Downtown Marriott, and the full service marriott 2 exits down"They look surprised and say "oh yea!!!! we remember you!! yknow, they called us last month and said you were fired and requested we come back! Clearly we should take them up on the offer"Boss nods and says "well thats not true, but by all means!" They then change the story and say 'we are unpacked, and we paid in cash so we cant just leave suddenly"Boss asks them to wait a moment, goes to the safe and gets their cash and then comes back to the desk and hands them a wad of cash and signals the bellman and says "well, here is your money and here is brian to help you with your things" Then they threw a fit about THAT.
All the men who are choosing fascism over equality because they feel entitled to women's bodies and their reproductive, domestic, and care labour.
I caught my ex trying to steal from me by impersonating me. Instead of offering a defense or even an excuse, she just doubled down and asked me to give her what she wanted.
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Saw a guy complain that his free sample 'didn't pair well' with the other free sample he demanded.
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My neighbour thinks because she owns her home she, and her family, and extended family, can do whatever they want. First day they took possession of the house, her brother did a burnout down our freshly paved street. Instead of apologizing when people were like w*f, her dad tried to fight the annoyed neighbours instead. It did not improve after that.They cut our internet line when they were planting a cedar hedge, when I went outside to be like did you just cut my line he just shrugged and didn't even apologize.Also, her husband's truck is so loud it rumbles my house when he starts it. So are all his friends.One time when I asked them to turn their music down, not off, just down, because it kept waking my baby up, they told us to close our window and proceeded to be louder. And honk their horns in the driveway. (Should also be noted they also had a baby, which apparently wasn't home that night. They don't do that when their baby is home, I wonder why. Guess only her baby gets to sleep.)But according to her I'm just miserable and don't want her to enjoy her home.
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I was a chauffeur and I was driving the nanny and three children to a destination where the parents will end up. They all had iPads with AirPods. While loading, one of children got upset and tossed his iPad on the ground. The nanny didn't say anything just picked up the broken iPad and went inside. She came out with a brand new one and handed it to the child. Nothing was said.
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Sharon Osbourne was on WILTY telling the story of how during her house fire she yanked the oxygen mask from one of her employees being seen to by an EMT and screeched"You work for me, now get back in there and save more paintings.".
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I was a TA, a student showed up 48 hours after an essay was due and handed it to me, asked me to get it to the prof. I was like "uhhh...this is Thursday TA office hours, this was due Tuesday in class or emailed". She went on a weird ramble about how when she showed up to the prof's office to submit it he wasn't there, which makes sense because he was in class, teaching. She was genuinely upset when I told her a two-day late submission has to go through the prof, not me.
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Most recent is a guy who came and set up to paint in my driveway. Brought his easel and paints and canvas and took up residence there very close to the house.
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I used to work in credit card fraud and dispute call center. One day I received a call from obviously a wealthy woman as she bought USD 10k jewellery from new York. After returning to Toronto she realized that she doesn't like the design anymore. Sho she went back to NY to return it. The jeweller returned her money in full. Now she was asking for associated travel and hotel costs from bank. I couldn't believe my ears when she said that. Oh, how pissed she became when I flatly denied her demand.
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The memory that just popped into my head was of the time I saw a well-dressed young woman on the sidewalk next to a restaurant that had some outdoor seating. She was chatting with a couple of other young women. The cafe was pretty fancy and the tables were already set for dining. This young woman wasn't even a customer. She idly reached over, took the linen napkin from one of the silverware settings, and blew her nose in it.
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I once had a lady try to walk onto the main stage at Coachella 2019 during a set. I politely told her she was not allowed and she told me she was a VIP and that I didn't know who she was.I told her only people with higher access were able to go on stage, and she asked, "oh yeah, like who?"And I said, "like me.".
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Was on a very, very, small, tourist island and during breakfast I noticed the entire balcony area was roped off (would sit there for morning whale watching) and there was two tables, one with three adults and one with a nannies (plural) and kids. The kids were ferals, throwing things on the floor, smearing stuff all over the table, and the nanny cleaned up as best they could but did not discipline the children. Later we were told that all the boats were on private charter and no one could go out on a boat, but we're divers who prepaid/chartered our dives so told them we would take a boat of our choice if they didnt do better and get us a boat. They found a boat but we went to a different side of the island and that days snorkling group was cancelled but again, we're divers with our own gear which means our non diving family had their own fins and masks etc so our people went snorkling anywayFound out later that this was a Saudi prince level family who was upset that we were on their island for their 2 day stay. They didnt even want us in the ocean on the day they were doing their tour and glass bottom trips. I guess they couldnt have us peasants in the ocean the same time they were.
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I manage a "contact us" email address for a multi-billion market cap company, and we get people emailing all the time saying they have ideas to share with our CEO and asking to set some time. Or complaining about something and demanding we reverse our decision because they said so. Yes, we'll get your appointment set with the CEO immediately, random stranger.
A friend i had couldn't comprehend what i meant when I said I couldn't afford something. They looked so baffled and asked why I didnt just go get money for it. Oh trust fund babies.
In my personal life, my ex mother in law raging that her ex husband (divorced for over 20 years) didn't take her on vacation with him and his current fiance because "they were married once so she deserves to go just as much as her".
My cousin. After my mother found out that he had spent $100 (OF HER MONEY) at the dispensary when he'd been going in for a 5 for $20 deal, when she confronted him about it he actually said "it sounds like you want me to say sorry, but I'm not. I'm not to blame because you didn't ask.".
Not my client thank God, but my cleaning company has a monthly customer who literally does NOTHING. Neither does the child (12-14ish).It takes an hour just to clear the floors of trash or whatever else these bums just drop on the ground.My most patient coworker does their house. I did it once and that was enough for me.
My dad's got some serious narcissistic tendencies. About 6 years ago, his house caught on fire. After everyone and the pets were safely outside, he spent so much time trying to tell the firemen had to do their job that one of them snapped at him. He told my dad that they could just leave and let the house burn.Imagine how much of an irrational control freak someone has to be, to make someone as heroic as a fireman snap like that. I know that some people just aren't good in a crisis, but he really is just like thatIt really is interesting to see how narcissism can run in families, from both nurture and nature. I've got several stories like that, from several different family members and who they're attracted to.
My ex best friend asked her dad to sell HIS home and move into a condo (which he does not want to do) so that SHE could take the money and buy her first home.She has multiple times inherited money from family passing away and mismanaged that so she asked her retired dad to fund her home. He say hell to the no and still has his house.
A former friend, "L," was attending nursing school in the early '90s. Her classmate B came across a used anatomy textbook at the bookstore—something unusual, since nursing students typically held on to theirs. L became upset and insisted that B shouldn't have bought the book, arguing that she deserved it more because she was paying for school entirely on her own without any help from her parents.
I'm sure there's been worse, but it happened directly to me and I remember it vividly. In university I had a part time job in the cafeteria cooking and serving students from the residences. Lot of rich kids at this school. I had a girl tell me to go to that fridge (she pointed) and get me some fresh tomatoes from a new container (of sliced tomatoes). We already had tomatoes on display with other available condiments, but those ones weren't good enough evidently. I remember I kind of cackled when she said it because I was so shocked by it I thought she was joking. She wasn't and complained to the manager about my attitude. Fortunately, I was a decent employee and had a good relationship with the other staff and manager so nothing came of it. I still remember that from time to time and it's been nearly 20 years.
My younger sister wanted my nose and begged for it, when she was 17, suddenly it didn't "fit her face" and she had a second rhinoplasty. I emancipated myself at 16, the year she had her first. My family was poor, btw.
I worked at this retirement home and there's this employee who was always having multiple complaints about her performance, being lazy, not wanting to do this, crying about not getting her way, NOTHING! Despite all of this, she's never been fired, written or anything. In fact, she's received employee of the month and received recognition.
Just been fired from a job a few months ago.So basically me and my partner also working at the same company did a technician course for some work equipment. The company paid the course (around 100$ only) without discussing it with us and we took it as a nice gesture. Well the nice gesture made our boss think he can now text us 24/7 asking us to come in UNPAID!!! After our 6-12h workday. He then consequently would get upset if we wouldn't then proceed to come to the office at 11pm. We kind of tolerated it due to a in general incredibly toxic work environment and him destroying our confidence through mean speeches. After about a year I had enough especially seeing how my partner but also other staff was treated. I had a supervisor role at the time and was a little bit less in the canon fire than the rest of the team. We approached him after a team meeting about being paid for the extra work and he completely lost it. Asked me for passwords the next day and fired me 3 weeks later for being "negative".
Worked with a Paramedic until I transitioned to a corporate role with the Ambulance Service. Not long after the Paramedic I worked with wanted to do a transfer with someone else - I didn't have consent from the other person, however, this particular Paramedic responded with "I don't care about consent, force the other Paramedic to do the transfer with me before I force him to do it, I don't need his consent".
General managers bringing their own people like boyfriend and friends. Sometimes they don't know what their doing and feel they can do anything because they know/related to the general manager.
I'm a teacher. Last year, we had a mom request that we completely change our big end of year field trip because her child had already been to the location and she wanted him to experience something new. This request was made 3 days before the trip.
Someone jumped the queue at the airport today right in front of my mate at an E-Gate.Funny though because he got stuck in the gate and my mate cleared before him after using one next to it.
I am a funeral director. We once had a family who wanted their service on a specific day. We already had one scheduled for that date and time. They asked "Can't you just call and make them move it?"Absolutely not.
My mother. My Stepdad had been suffering from prostate cancer for 14 years, he went downhill quickly & passed away. My mother had sold her house & bought into his. So they owned half each. When he passed, his half was left to his two kids. She was furious he didn't leave his half to her, citing that he'd already given his children plenty of money. They'd already lost their mother to cancer too. Plenty more stories like that about her! None of us speak to her.
My son. Who's literally in the middle of his punishment for poor behaviour and he had the audacity to ask me what we're getting him for Christmas this year.
Someone literally yelling at a waiter because their water was "too cold" 😭 like chill, it's literally water lol.
If you leave a person in a bubble of constant privilege for too long, the normal boundaries the rest of us live by start ...
