Seven words I despise- “Well that’s just the way it is”. Our society has evolved to a point that when something is simple, easy, or works, it must be made complicated or inefficient to justify certain peoples existence. Lawyers, brokers etc… I say we get back to basics; make deals with handshakes, stop obsessing about safety. Make words and honor matter again. Watch a John Wayne movie to see what I’m talking about…
Not being one to point out problems without proposing a solution, I offer this:
We save money, but, do we save time? I have, in my recent years, started a time bank. I keep track of the time wasting activities that I avoid and then later, do something I enjoy with that time. I will have a glass of wine and watch a dragonfly from my back porch with the time I saved by not standing in a line the week before. Have you ever really observed a dragonfly? Just an example.
So, if you are at your scheduled appointment on time and the doctor is late in seeing you, get up and leave. If the cable company is late, call them and cancel and switch companies. If there is a long line for a restaurant, go somewhere else. If you are stuck on hold, hang up. If a solicitor comes to your door, be firm immediately and ask them to leave, every minute counts, do not let them continue their pitch at your expense. Is there another bullshit meeting scheduled that is only for the sake of justifying someones job, or to blather on about nothing and resolve no problems? Skip it. Blow it off and tell them so. Are you stuck making small talk with some idiot who is only interested in hearing their own voice? Walk away while they are in mid sentence.
Believe me, if we all start doing this, people will get the picture. It might take some risk and we might need to do without certain things in the short term, but, the payoff is worth it when you are getting in that extra hour of surfing, an afternoon nap, a walk with your loved one, an hour conversation with an old friend, a game of catch with your kid or game of fetch with your dog (remember, our dogs won’t be around forever).
I am aggravated with people who protest about the government being the source of their problems when the root of most problems is a result of a severe lack of personal responsibility. It is an unrealistic expectation from most in our society that you deserve a large house, an Escalade, a boat, and that all your children should go to college. Stop expecting something for nothing. Do a reality check; if you live beyond your means then it is a problem that you created for yourself. Here is how it works- if you borrow money; you pay it back. If you don’t like the terms of the loan; you shouldn’t have borrowed in the first place. It is not my responsibility to help bail you out with my tax dollars. If you bought a house on a gimmick loan that you really could not afford; it is not MY problem. Deal with it.
I look around and see that the people that are making money are overpaid unskilled labor overly protected by unions while skilled people do not have the salary equivalent to their abilities. We are not a merit based society any more. When used car dealers, assembly line workers, and entertainers have a higher quality of life (monetarily) than a school teacher, scientist, farmer, soldier, or skilled craftsman; something is wrong. Also, if you make six-figures and it takes you five minutes to describe what you do, you are probably overpaid.
Health care is a problem because insurance costs have skyrocketed due to people seeking medical attention for trivial ailments and cosmetic operations. They want insurance to pay for breast implants, sex changes, teeth whitening, and Viagra. Guess what? If you are sixty-five years old, nature did not intend for you to have a hard-on every day. You are too old to raise children, which is nature’s reason for sexual intercourse in the first place. Many grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived happily with small boobs. You don’t need to take your kid to the emergency room every time he/she gets a fever.
GM could survive if ALL the employees (including the CEO of course) worked for less. If the guy who bolts alternators onto a hundred cars per day was willing to sell his boat and work for a salary equivalent to his skill level, then maybe, just maybe they could keep their jobs. If the CEO who thinks he deserves millions of dollars for doing a really crappy job (face it, you drove GM into the ground for crying out loud- I could do THAT) took a salary more proportional to his ability, GM might survive. Who thought it would be a great idea to put money into building more Hummers and other V8 models while ignoring the obviously pending fuel crisis and not applying proven methods that the Japanese have obviously figured out? Germany and Japan still value craftsmanship. Americans, in general, do not anymore. Americans today like things cheap and disposable. We go to Walmart and IKEA that sell cheap disposable shit. Why? We want stuff NOW. We are unwilling to SAVE for something that is quality and lasting. We complain about “big box” stores that put small companies out of business but let it happen because we are too lazy to drive five more minutes or pay an extra couple bucks for a product of higher value with better customer service.
“Buy American” is NOT American. Capitalism and the best craftsmanship is American. Telling everyone to buy an inferior product is closer to…guess what? Socialism. Where will that get us? Remember the Soviet Union had essentially two cars, the VAZ, for everyone and the Zil for the high level government “elite”. Do you see any of those imported here and on the road? No, you don’t because they are crap. They are what GM will produce if the government controls it and we continue to tell people to buy it because it is “patriotic”. Let’s get America back on top the RIGHT way….by earning it.
