A Rant: Imagine if this Happens!
The other day I was walking in beautiful Punta Del Este and I came across a man wearing an identifiable bright outfit to show that he parks cars for drivers. He was standing, bundled up trying to stay warm from the cold breeze. He’s a nice fella, despite my minimal Spanish, but there’s one aspect I’ve noticed. I have never, ever, seen him directing a car to park. In fact, right now we are in Uruguay’s winter, so there is a lot let less action–so what the heck is he doing?
He’s a friendly, sociable man–should he really be spending his time in the breezy weather waiting for a car to come by? Is this the most productive thing he can do?What is he getting paid for? Is he necessary?
Life in Canada
It’s embarrassing, but I can put the same set of questions to myself with my own experience with “working”. About 10 years ago, I received a contractual job to clean out a bunch of dirty lockers. I guess they were paying because they didn’t want to deal with rats, asbestos or god knows what we’d find.
Being eager to start into the job, I wanted to get it all done in a timely manner–but I’ll never forget what a coworker said to me. He said, “don’t work yourself out of a job”. Which meant, as long as I had something pending to do, I was going to receive a paycheque. If I had to play it like this, Was I necessary?
It actually got better (or worse) because since I knew everybody in all the right positions and they had extra funding, I was able to receive a new job from my handy man locker-cleaning job. The title was something like “University Security Officer Assistant”, which later became “Library Security Officer” That’s right. I was moving up ranks in the world!
Of course, we both know it was bullshit. A made up work title to explain my existence. I had days (actual 8 hour work days) where I was paid to sit in a chair, watch films and eat from the local cafeteria. One day, I literally wrote a stand-up comedy routine with the other security guard and that’s it. At the library, or my “promoted position”, I was paid to do my homework. Everybody was doing homework too but the difference was I was in the comfy red chair with a little uniform and everybody else was on the other side of the library. See how this goes?
Bottom line, I think you know the answer to the question–> Was I necessary?
Reflect Upon Your Own Work
My work ethic is not constricted to that of a welfare state like Canada however. I had jobs where I did a good job but rather it was the others who slacked off. They slacked so much, I thought of returning to writing comedy routines as I noticed that every single worker had a “thing” they would do INSTEAD OF work. One lady spent her time online shopping, another wanted to watch/listen to how to assemble computers, another would watch video game recordings, another tried to beat his personal record at how fast he can win at Solitaire. Every single one of them were working 40 hours a week but only producing about 15-20 hours a week. Were they all necessary?
I encourage you to reflect upon your own work(place) because I can see this continuing to be true in those around me. I have relatives close by who work from home and absolutely _everything_ is an online meeting. It must tally up to be 10-20 hours a week in the form of meetings and by eavesdropping I’d suggest that many calls are unnecessary or longer than they should be. I won’t put anybody on the spot but let’s say we’re dealing with big companies that are tradable on the Nasdaq–not some dusty library or a Punta Del Este calle. Are all those meetings necessary?
Link for Free Newsletters: https://imontheball.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=5831e2c1676ffa4590250462a&id=8c571bb7c1
Closing
I hope you were able to chuckle on my account, but the point I wish to highlight here is how many people who are receiving money who otherwise shouldn’t be. Goods and Services are not produced, and yet people are still receiving a pay. I reckon 30-40% of jobs shouldn’t only be cut down, they shouldn’t exist at all! There is zero valid explanation why I should receive a single cent for getting fat and watching Hitchcock films in a university–but I did–and I guarantee that people still do. All around us, people like to claim titles and pretend that they matter to keep their paycheques coming in–> but what if that 30-40% find out abruptly that they actually do not matter? What if all these paycheques stopped coming into accounts?
Have the governments of the world pacified the populations into accepting that they should accept something for nothing? What would a world look like if you rug-pull 30% of the world’s salaries? What if we went totally back to an honest free-market (as it should be), would the world be ready for it? Would this cause a banking crisis, a bank run, a suicide epidemic, heck, even a revolution of some sort?
Many are critical of stimulation checks and universal basic income; but what if we’re already kind of on such a system? Why is nobody discussing this?
I suppose I should be grateful that it happened to me after all. Not because I received pay for pretending to do a hard days work–but because it opened my eyes that if I (& anybody else) want to continue to receive pay, I have to produce goods and services & do a hard days work. That’s what I hope to do with On The Ball LLC!
SO, I put the question to you again–> Are you Necessary?
#StayOnTheBall
PLEASE SHARE if you have a moment and follow us on Twitter(X), Instagram and LinkedIn.
