You go to a bank and you have to wait on a queue or sitting in a chair, staring at a blinking LED screen for your number to be called. You go to a fast food restaurant and you wait for the people at the tellers to serve you. You call customer service, wait for your call to be attended. You wait. Then you expect to be treated well. You expect to receive answers and solutions. You expect quality. You have expectations. You feel entitled to the good job of the people attending you. Well, you are paying, right? Why shouldn't you get the worth of your money? It's curious at the same time how many people, at the same time, do a mediocre work at their own jobs and expect others to be contended with it and consider them for it. They will not doubt before asking for the head of the kid at Subway who forgot the olives from their sandwich, but when they slap together some sorry ass work and render it at their jobs or at their schools, they actually expect a raise or the highest possible grade because "they did what could be done". Question: what makes YOU so special so that your incompetence should be tolerated but that of others shouldn't?
As it happens, this double standard also applies to everything in society, and we are currently seeing it smeared thick on politics. I feel tempted to write about the American politics, but 1. I already did that and just erased a ten page post, and 2. I'm terribly biased in favor of President Obama, so I won't do that.
However, the facts are quite similar everywhere around the world: everybody has something ill to say about others, everybody feels entitled to the maximum effort of others, and they resent it with anyone asks them for anything but the minumum. Some resent being asked at all! the rich and wealthy, the corporations resent Government participating in the market, regulating, giving "handouts" (subventions, welfare, etc) to those who have less. They resent Universal healthcare and cry out that their money shouldn't go to pay the medical services of poor people who don't even work, BUT when their greed fucks things up for them, and they can't buy themselves another island in the Pacific, THEN they demand for a bailout. They also demand constantly for tax cuts and all sorts of subventions "because they create jobs, and investing is productive". Yeah, unlike getting a job at a company like - uh - yours? Because the company is productive by itself and the people working in it and not getting the tax cut... isn't?
Government held companies are bad. Yes they are! You can't buy stock to them because THEY BELONG TO THE PEOPLE! You can't even compete with them because while your sole intention is to make a profit out of selling stuff to people, Government owned companies look forward to give a service to the nation at an affordable price. You know, as in "make sure everybody gets to receive this service or this product". But let's cut here, I'm not saying that all companies should be owned by the Government - though I do believe that services that improve the lifestyle of the nation should, such as education, healthcare and infrastructure, as well as security and first response services.
Some say that they "support companies and corporations" because "that's were growth is and everybody should be allowed to become an investor and have their own company". Yeah... assuming everybody has been born to be an enterpreneur. I don't, I like being an employee, I like the safety, I like knowing I'll be able to retire one day and I love helping build a bigger project than that I could achieve from my own means. But even if you have the enterpreneur bug in you, how are you going to get the capital you need? And once you do, how are you going to make sure you survive, and you make a living out of it? Sure, you can say "Bill Gates did it" and "Aristotle Onassis did it", but you are neither, and this isn't putting you down, this is being practical. Maybe you can do it, maybe you have that great idea and you can do it, but what if every one of your neighbours did it? Truthfully, what would you think would happen?
If no workers were left, who would take your call at the Customer Service? Who would make your car? Who would do the sitcoms you watch on TV? Yes, you need workers. And you have to pay those workers. But then, you want to pay as less as possible to those workers - and don't come with the "the more valuable the worker is, the more money they can make" because you and I know perfectly incompetent people who make more money than those who do make a good job. And you don't want to pay taxes and healthcare and what nots because if you don't want freeloaders enjoying your money. Well, then you should pay your workers enough so that they can afford all they need to live. But you don't want to do that either. As a matter of fact, if you are employing Jimmy, why should you give him enough money so that he can feed, dress and school his child? It's not like it's your child! Why should you pay for a child that's not yours!?
I've seen phrases on the Internet that say stuff like "Maybe you expect too much from others because that's how much you are willing to give", and that sounds to me like bullshit. Do they really? There's a play of rationality here being trampled by extremism and dumb shouting.
When you apply for a job, you should do so with the compromise to give to that company your dedication. Now, I sid DEDICATION, which is different from LOYALTY. You are not to follow blindly, and don't question, but to work with integrity. It's not about doing your best effort, it's about doing what needs to be done to get the job done. And if you can't, resign and give let someone else do the job. If you don't know foreing languages, don't apply for the post of translator. If you are running for President of a Nation, don't pretend to rule and protect the interests of only a handful of people, just like being CEO of a company doesn't mean that you'll take care only for one tiny department of it and the rest can go to hell.
However, talking about this is sadly a vain exercise. the great majority will bitch about others, demand almost a slavish job from them, while they expect to be treated like Ceasars, do nothing and be praised for the battles they haven't even taken part of. It's not the Mayan Calendar, Nostradamus' bullshit of the Apocalypse what's going to end the world, is out leaureated incompetence.
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