But, a little background first:
Understand, I believe in the free market. I put my stock in those things Adam Smith wrote about, things like supply and demand that drive the marketplace.
As far as this recession, I figure it this way. It's a dieback, just like with species of animals that cannot adjust to a new world. They become extinct, are briefly mourned, and another, more adaptible species takes over its role. Yeah, when talking economics there's a bit of a Darwinist in me. Although I agree his theory of evolution is nothing but junk science that takes gigantic leaps in logic to formulate a half-baked hypothesis, some of his short-range ideas -- survival of the fittest, adaption and the like -- are spot on.
Economic Darwinism
As I write this, the economy is in the tank. Unemployment rates rival those of the Jimmy Carter era, and are not all that far behind Great Depression numbers when you include those who gave up looking for jobs. Foreclosures are happening left and right. Businesses that are too big to fall are falling. Our biggest automakers -- once the crown jewel of our industrial society -- are bankrupt. Newspapers are folding. It's just bad times in the neighborhood.
You can put this in biological terms and say it's a dieback of the less adaptible, and you won't be far off. The old Detroit assembly-line business model was obsolete a generation ago, but the only one who hasn't figured that out is the guy running the assembly line. The morning newspaper can't even touch an Internet that brings you news the way you want it when you want it, with videos and all, and again the only one who hasn't figured it out is the guy who owns the presses.
Under this theory, the obsolete are the first victims of an economic downturn, whether it's the worker that's obsolete or the company who owns the time card he punches every day. And for the most part, I'm not wrong in my thinking.
I've been unemployed since September, and I've still found no cause to alter this thinking. I've had to adapt, and so far it's coming together. Rather than punch a clock for a company that had a business culture that was unlike anything I've ever had to work under, I'm now working for myself. See, I know my own strengths and limitations. I can adapt, but I'm usually not willing to do so. This natural stubbornness makes me a good employee but something of a loose cannon, and if I was an employer I'd certainly be the micromanager from Hell. For me, the best employment scenario is self-employment.
Had I not been laid off when I was, I probably would have become obsolete very quickly -- at least in that setting.
Pretty heavy stuff, and I was only going to talk about dinner with friends. But bear with me here.
Hire the incompetent -- they're fun to watch
I get together with a group of friends every Saturday, and this time we went out to eat. Nothing fancy; just breakfast at Dennys in North Charleston. And it was a train wreck. A Polish fire drill.
It wasn't busy in the place; way more unoccupied tables than there were occupied. We trooped in, 10 adults and one infant, grabbed our seats, got drinks, and ordered.
It went downhill from there. More than an hour later, some of the folks in our group still hadn't received their food, and some of us who already received food saw that what they got had little to do with what they ordered.
The waitress, bless her heart, was frazzled. I don't fault her here; she was working in the eye of the storm while everything else was breaking down around here. At one point she said she was going to get it right "if I have to go back there myself." Again, bless her.
I didn't see the cook. Maybe he was thinking he should be steppin' out on a Saturday night instead of slaving away for eight hours. I'm not sure where his head was (and I'm still afraid to ask), but it wasn't in his work.
The manager? If he gave a rip, he sure didn't show it. He offered no apologies, but a sackful of excuses instead -- including being busy. Busy where? Certainly not at this place.
No perfect systems
Being prone to thinking these weird thoughts all the time, I came away thinking the recession is, so far, a failure. There are still plenty of incompetents who have jobs.
See, under the perfect system -- which we will never see as long as man, with all his frailties, is running it -- the jobs will be taken over by those who can do the work. The folks who actually care about customer service will take the customer service jobs. Those who are good with their hands will all be carpenters and mechanics. And those who have zero skills and absolutely no socially redeeming values can run for Congress.
Instead, we have the same slouching, uncaring types dealing with the public. Still, recession or not. We have people working jobs where they're totally unsuited, saying they need that job and the rest of society owes them. Still, recession or not.
So much for economic Darwinism.
I hate it when my theories don't hold up.
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