The Curmudgeon

This past weekend I was meeting my younger son for breakfast. As usual, I was early so I approached the young hostess to get a table for two. Seeing numerous open tables, I was surprised when the hostess asked for my name and informed me that there would be a 25-minute wait. Being the simple guy that I am, I inquired why there was a wait when there were so many open tables. The response, “we don’t have sufficient waitresses to cover all sections of the restaurant.” So, I waited.

The lack of help is a common complaint in these post pandemic days. Whether its poorly staffed restaurants, closed drive-up windows at the coffee shop, or the absence of sales associates on the floor of CVS, I can’t help but wonder what the Hell everyone is doing to survive? Sure, I’ve heard the chorus of enablers harping about the 1%, the privileged, lack of a livable wage, the great resignation, or now quiet resignation. However we choose to explain this phenomenon, I just don’t get it. What have we become?

In my old-fashioned perspective, I view works as a fundamental component to one’s sense of purpose and self-respect. Sure, there are bad jobs and lousy managers but, in the end, the one thing I can control is my commitment to engage and grow. The alternative is to project my failures on others as an excuse to be a sloth. It’s a matter of taking responsibility as an adult or choose to live the life of a child in a hoped-for nanny state.

I respect those who choose to work fewer hours to achieve a better live-work balance. That is, I respect these decisions if they go along with companion decisions to live with less. I understand the need to address the high costs of living with better wages and more affordable housing costs. I acknowledge the presence of people with extreme wealth, although I refuse to be a victim and blame others for my own conditions. Ours has always been a hierarchical society as were our predecessors who walked or crawled the ancient earth. There are corrupt hierarchies, but most are a result of hard work and earned power.

So, Andrew Yang, you take the Universal Guaranteed Income and shove it. Time to get out of bed, get cleaned up, and do what the adults do. Get a job and work. Be the best at your job, invest in yourself, and be a good human being. And together, lets work to solve the issues that make our paths more difficult than they really should be. More times than not, its government that has created the obstacles.