On working hard. Two.

A note to well-remunerated suit-wearing libertarians, continued:

As I was saying, I believe you work hard, maybe even as hard as you think you do. But hard is relative. And just because you spend a lot of time at work, thinking about work, and worrying about work that doesn’t mean you are spending that time working, let alone working hard. Putting in the hours is not the same as putting in the work. It depends on what you do while you’re there.

As the great Wev McEwan points out, it’s “not that we all don't love the incredibly stupid game of Staring Intently at Minesweeper on a Monitor Like We're Seriously Working on a Difficult Problem (or whatever variation one's job may require)” but putting in time at the office just to be visible to the boss isn’t the same as being productive.

A lot of what we’re all paid to do, no matter what the job, is be on hand in case…

And think on this.

It’s indoor work, in comfortable surroundings, requiring no heavy lifting or physical risk. No one’s shooting at you. No one’s asking to rush into burning buildings. People’s immediate physical well-being doesn’t depend on you making the right snap judgment. You don’t have to stop any bleeding, re-start any hearts.

And you got good benefits. Paid vacations. Paid sick days, personal days, family leave. I know, like you could dare take advantage of any of that, especially the last one, if you’re a man. Hell. If you’re a woman. But they’re there if you need them and, who knows, maybe your bosses aren’t the assholes they pretend to be, and even if they are you’re not going to get fired on the spot if you ask for the time, like what happened to your favorite waitress as the diner you like to have lunch at on Thursdays, the one who, now that you think of it, hasn’t been there for the last few weeks and, if you’d bother to ask, you know it’s because one day she had to stay home to take care of a sick kid, one of the three, or is it four, she told you once, you should remember, she’s raising on minimum wage plus tips and whatever he loser of an ex gets around to paying in child support, and her boss, who was there even though his kids were home sick and he couldn’t take the day off, lost his temper or maybe he’s just an asshole.

And you get paid well. Paid a lot, really. Maybe as much as you think you deserve. But deserve is relative too.

Take a look around at the people you work with, the ones making as much or more than you. They all think they work hard. They all think they deserve what they get paid. Do they? Does she? Does he? Are they as deserving or more deserving than you?

Turn it around now.

Are you really as deserving or more deserving?

It’s a question of how hard you work plus how much money you make for the company plus how much good you do for the world at large plus how much that work and that money and that good depends on you being the one who does it. You. Not someone like you with your background and training and experience. You.

You get sick, you get laid off---hey, it happens.---you get a new job, the place going to fall apart without you there? Company going to tank? People going to go broke? Anyone going to starve?

No matter how hard you work, no matter how good a job you do, no matter how much you deserve to make, what you’re really being paid to do is fill a space and stick around until somebody better at it comes along.

Now think about it. Isn’t that what everybody’s paid to do?

We’ve fashioned an economy in which we’re all all interchangeable and all disposable. No matter how hard we work, no matter how much we deserve, we’re there until somebody---something---better comes along. We’re treated as widgets in the money-making machine.

So, like I said below, take your money, spend it how you want, but stop whining, stop bragging, stop expecting the rest of us to be grateful, and start showing a little sympathy for your fellow widgets.

Again, hat tip to David Wong at Cracked for his post 6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying.

Comments

[JD]

I would add, "And stop thinking you're qualified to be the judge of what anyone deserves in this world."

[S McCoy]

Hey Lance. You're right to applaud the hard working teachers, waitresses, store managers, etc. The hard working libertarians I know stand with them. Though most wear Dockers, not suits, these days. But what about the millions of others who don't work hard....because they can't find a job, or can't take one due to the perverse incentives in our safety net? Your anger is misplaced, I think. Instead you should despise the blood suckers in Washington and Albany who've rigged the system to favor the few and created fierce economic headwinds for the rest of us. Corruption is the problem, not capitalism.