I work at Home Depot. I won't comment on how I feel about that because I currently still need that job. However, take a step back and look at a store of that nature. It contracts with a great number of companies to assemble virtually any tool, material or item that one could desire for basic home maintenance. And does the fun stop there? Oh no, not even remotely! Do the blinds you like not come in the size you need? Let us cut them for free. Do none of the hundreds of paint options make you happy? Allow us to match that piece of dog fur you brought in. Did you kill the plants you bought last year because you don't know how to water and fertilize something? Of course we'll take it back. Maybe you read those examples and think it's normal, that of course a store should do those things for you. You brought in your pennies, therefore the workers must bend over backwards for you. That's utter crap.
We should constantly be in awe that we can enter just a few buildings and then run out of things we cannot buy. You don't have to mine your own ore, smelt it, shape it and then attach it to the wood you have worked in order to make a tool, nail or bolt. You don't even know how paint is made, would never have the patience to weave your own rug or kiln your own dishes. How many dairy farmers do you know locally? Probably none, and why would you, with fresh milk, eggs and cheese within a few miles of almost everyone? Don't forget breads, rice, cereals, fruit that is out of season, meat that has been cleaned and preserved, plus the whole line of cookies, candies and soft drinks that are available. And these are just stores. We glut ourselves wherever we can, for reasons that don't even make sense.
Too often people get entitled to something new because they know someone else who received something. Have you ever been to a Panda Express or Subway, and right after you got your orange chicken or tomatoes, they refilled it with a brand new batch? Did you feel jaded because you didn't have the newest and best, even though twenty seconds before you were excited to eat what you had? Or your coworker got a new work computer from the manager, and now you're angry that you don't have one? How have we let ourselves get to this? Nothing is a luxury to us unless we are the only one who has it. As soon as enough people have a luxury, we view it as a necessity. My phone is more powerful than the computer that took people to the moon. I will never need what this thing can do. We have four fridges in our apartment (two of which tenants bought themselves). That's three more than we need, but we feel to store so much food at any given time that it became "necessary." We have two bathrooms, just in case we can't be bothered to wait the ten minutes it takes for someone to finish up in the shower before we do our thing. It's utter madness that with these things, our apartment is considered "dumpy." As Louis C.K said on the Conan O'Brien show:
"Everything is amazing, and no one is happy...now we live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of just spoiled idiots that don't care."This brings me to Atlas Shrugged. It's a fairly robust book, weighing in at a little over a thousand pages. Its author, Ayn Rand, simplifies people into two very distinct categories, which are essentially those who contribute and "looters," or people who try to get something for nothing. More of that book resonated with me that it probably should have, but what she describes feels so suffocatingly accurate. So many people don't want to work for things anymore. They want to be spoon fed these luxuries without thought or consideration for the work that went into them, let alone lifting a finger to acquire such things. Yes, I understand than in many instances, people have spent money on these things and service is to be expected. The moment, however, that someone feels like they own the person serving them, that they are somehow better or superior, is the moment I lose all respect for them. You're not better than your waiter, than the drive through worker, the employee on the floor of the store you're at, or so many other people that we categorize as "under" us. Where would you be without the mind of your mechanic, plumber, electrician, store worker, housing manager or teacher? These people shared their knowledge and ability because you lacked the capacity to do what they did. Now I'm fully aware there are people who are lazy and living off of others through sheer lack of motivation, and yes, and they are a detriment to society if they aren't trying to improve. If, however, we treat everyone as if they fall into this category, we are no better than those from whom we think to distinguish ourselves. Don't feel entitled. Or if you do, don't act it. It is ugly in every person it manifests in, and it is something that we never feel we have, even though it is often found within us.
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