LIVING WITH OUR `ENTITLEMENT' MENTALITY.(MAIN)

Byline: George Will

WASHINGTON In 1930 in America average life expectancy at birth was 58 years for men, 61 for women. By 1990 it was 71 and 79 respectively.

Until the 1930s the average manufacturing worker toiled nearly 50 hours a week with few rights or benefits. In 1996 about 80 percent of all workers have employer-paid health insurance. In 1940 most Americans were renters, most households had neither a refrigerator nor central heating, 30 percent lacked inside running water, coal fueled most furnaces and stoves, wood was the second most-used fuel.

More than a fifth of Americans lived on farms, less than a third of which had electric lights and only a tenth had flush toilets.

In 1940 one in 20 Americans had a college degree; 50 years later, one in …