Personal Responsibility

Personal Responsibility?

I agree completely, utterly and without reservation that we should be responsible for our own actions.

Where I do not agree is the way that this is used as a political slogan. That we should not depend upon others for providing for us is a great idea. The problem is that economically we are! Even if you run a shop, your own business, you are dependant upon customers buying your services or products, and at a price where you make a profit. If not, then you are dependant upon banks to keep you in business.

Quick reminder at this point – banks are not charitable organisations either! Banks are also there to make a profit, often at your expense!

If your business loses money, the bank will not keep you alive for long. Bad debt it does not need, it hurts their profits (or it spoils their ability to have fun speculating with the money that you have invested with them – they have no problem losing your money for you, that goes with the territory!).

And if you are the quiet, shy type of individual (like myself) for whom selling is a chore (to say the least), then how do you manage to practise this concept of personal responsibility? Finding someone who believes in your ability sufficiently to employ you and pay you enough money to meet all your requirements.

Just how easy that is can be summed up by the increasing tendency of businesses to close down their operations where they pay decent but not amazing salaries to talented, industrious, hardworking, very competent individuals (like myself) in the developed world, and move them to less developed parts of the world, where they can pay the proverbial peanuts.

Easy? NOT AT ALL!

And what happens to the concept of “personal responsibility” then? No point running to a bank, they are not there for that purpose. In fact banks (the most fundamental basis of any capitalist society NB) are the last people who will be there when you need help – unless you want someone to help you with some speculative venture from which they can gain themselves!

Rather you end up, reluctantly, despite yourself, asking a government agency for help. Frankly it stinks! But where are the alternatives?

Polemical answers I do not need. Just a job (or a regular, and not particularly excessive source of income), and adequate money to keep me afloat so that I can take care of my personal needs. I do not need lessons in personal responsibility, particularly from people who supported the individuals who speculated us into the current crisis, and are prepared to vote to put the maniacs back in charge of the asylum!