"WTH happened to my country?" Freeholder wrote in the comments of the $2/hour post.
There was a time in my life when I was looking for nice girls to date. Having an orderly mind and an appreciation of predator/prey ratios and how that tilts the hunt, I decided to dip my toes into a target-rich environment. I enrolled in Psychology 101 at the local community college.
The class was taught by a practicing, clinical psychologist. Paraphrasing one of the bits of wisdom he dispensed "When I first started practice and everything was all balled up, I worked with my patients on the Three-Ps. As I gained experience, I realized that nobody went to the psychologist unless their life was totally in the ditch. Consequently, I always hit the Three-Ps. Always!"
The Three-Ps are Priorities, Priorities and Priorities. Dr. Morales's point was that an individual can only have ONE #1 Priority. Mental gridlock and emotional anguish result when two "#1 Priorities" reach the intersection at the same time.
The United States we grew up in only had one #1 Priority for most of us. "Get and keep a job to support your family." If your job did not provide enough hours or dollars to support your family, your responsibility was to get a second job to increase your hours or to upgrade your skills and get a higher paying job. It was not the government's responsibility to do that. It was not the workplace's responsibility to do that.
The US Government acts like it wants to destroy all private-sector jobs by saddling them with conflicting #1 Priorities.
For example: The companies that designed and manufactured freezers in the America we grew up in focused on designs and processes that were simple to manufacture, could be maintained and were affordable. Today, a company like Whirlpool expends executive attention on
- Protecting the Ozone,
- Correcting racial injustice
- Stamp out sexism
- Promote LGBTLMENOP agenda
- Substance abuse counseling
- Mental health issues
- Retirement planning
- Designing products that are accessible to the differently-abled,
- Making factories handicapper accessible,
- Energy efficiency, (packing more heat-exchanger in a smaller space by making tighter bends in the tubing)
- Reducing embedded energy (i.e. using thinner-walled aluminum in the heat exchangers),
- Recycleability of materials,
- Stock price,
- Currency exchange rates,
- Supply chains
- Fending off litigation
- United Way fund drives
- Pandering to political pressures
How can any entity function with a dozen "#1 Priorities"? Whirlpool's mission to provide the majority of their customers with a product that was reasonably energy efficient, easy to use and maintain and would last twenty-or-more years somehow got lost in the shuffle.
What the heck happened to our country? We forgot that a man can only serve one master...and have only one #1 Priority.
Even though the concept is unpopular, it is still true. Choose your #1 Priority wisely.
Girls to date
And before you ask, I did not date any of the girls from the Psychology class. Lots of girls, no mistake. But they were not who I was looking for.
Wow, how far back does one go?
ReplyDeleteWhat I have noticed since 1957 is a whole slew of things like osha, epa, waronpoverty, warondrugs, fica, futa, suta, bean counters instead of car guys running (controlling) auto manufacture, and especially the loss of coins with silver in them. Whatever happened to penny candy? (It's a great book to read, btw). Also, the creation of 401ks-where was the Dow Jones before and after?
It is heartening to see some governors and state legislators interceding between the feds and we the people. When products are manufactured outside the realm of federal non-sense "rules" Americans may actually get to buy those great products, like my 1960's era refrigerator, still running when required, again.
Our country is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than just the federal government.
And high school typing class, as a senior, was a great place to spend one hour per day during confinement in the government school. Peace.
ReplyDeleteI did the same with typing. Very nice bouncy environment.
DeleteThe two Fortune 500 companies I worked for had elaborate mission statements and corporate mottos, not one of which did anything to make up for their poor customer focus. Their only growth was by acquisition. They kept stock high as possible by reducing cost, which always ended up slashing employees.
ReplyDeleteThe small companies, including my own, had neither and seemed work much better at keeping customers happy and bring products to new markets.
I think large companies need to justify the bureaucracies they develop as fulfilling a social need. Personally I think it's BS.
Gerry
Ah yes, the old WHICH six things do you want done first... sigh
ReplyDeleteI may have posted this previously, but worth saying again:
ReplyDelete"If you make everything the #1 priority, it's the same as having no priority."
Peace and God Bless.
I don't know if you've seen Executive Suite.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it in a while, but it's in my DVR.
In the end, IIRC, the engineer tells the board exactly what's wrong with their company.
We need more of that.
My pet theory is most of our problems are caused by finally getting good enough at what we do - making refrigerators, growing food, running a country, etc. - that a surplus is generated; whether that surplus is money, food, human energy or time is irrelevant, it winds up being squandered on almost anything but the core mission simply because it can be.
ReplyDeleteWTF happened to my country ? 1) socialism 2) the women's vote 3) men shirking their duty
ReplyDelete