The Chief Vice

The answer to hard times is hard work.

It seems that everyone has their vice. Some drink. Others smoke. There is overeating and gambling. People don't exercise. There is sex addiction. There is internet addiction. But these vices pale in comparison to the ultimate vice. Of all the vices, this vice is the cornerstone. The chief vice is laziness.

I see this everywhere I go. This is a nation of slackers. People don't want to work. Much of our economic problems stems from this laziness. When a nation looks to finance instead of industry as the way to go, this is laziness taking over. When a generation pursues worthless college degrees at huge expense for the sake of a white collar job that doesn't exist and to end up back in the nest with mom and dad, this is laziness. The big horror for this generation is not unemployment or bankruptcy but having to get a job as an electrician or a plumber. What makes these jobs so horrible? They are hard work.

People don't want to work. Work is something hated and to be avoided. If it can't be avoided, it needs to be for 30 hours or less preferably in a controlled climate like an office and pay way more than the market rate. This is the American Dream today. And how is such sloth vindicated. "I want time to spend with my family."

All that free time gives birth to the other vices. Drinking, drug abuse, gambling, excessive consumption of media, overeating, etc. are simply activities pursued to alleviate the boredom of idleness. The answer to boredom is to eliminate the idleness, and the best way to do this is by working more. But no one wants to hear this.

The welfare state is also an outgrowth of this laziness. We pay all sorts of able bodied people to not work which are the disabled and the elderly. We consider 55 retirement age. People fake disability to collect a check. You have people languishing on unemployment whose only goal in life is to not find a job. Meanwhile, I see want ads staring me in the face. When I mention these jobs to people, they always say they can't do the jobs because it is more than 30 hours a week doing hard work.

I was watching a report on the news where some kids were doing 10 hours a day of farm work. This work is exempt from child labor laws, and naturally, the report was completely one sided as it talked about the "cruelty" of kids helping out their parents during hard times. People were flabbergasted that kids were working. Naturally, they wanted a law against this sort of thing, and people wonder why teenagers can't find a summer job.

I read all this personal development websites, but none of them ever advocate the work ethic as the answer to many personal problems. You get advice to cut spending, meditate, use the Law of Attraction, and on and on. But nobody ever tells people to get off their ass and go work. Got debt problems? Work a second job. Messy house? Get off your ass and clean. Out of shape? Get off your ass and run.

Work brings happiness. Work makes us money. Work provides the goods and services we all use. Work is what makes other people admire and appreciate us. Work gets us through the rough patches when we would rather lay on the couch and mope. Work is an unqualified good. Work works.

Everybody is lazy to one extent or another. I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to slack. The difference between me and other people is that I am not looking for some magical answer to problems. The answer is work. People don't want to hear that answer. They want some alternative which is where the crooks come into play. Their answer almost always entails some easy way out of the required suffering the world brings. There are no easy ways. Their solution is to find some hardworking person and fuck them over. Or, they just fuck you over and leave you worse off than before.

The answer for everyone is to embrace work. Get used to working. Make it your lifestyle to wake up every day and put in a solid day of productive effort. Accept that you are going to do this every day for the rest of your life. Once you have this acceptance, everything else in your life will get easier and better. What makes work suffering for people are the thoughts they add to it. But work is not misery. I know because I work. I have been working since I was 13 years old. Work has been a constant source of joy for me. The only irritant has been the bleating and whining of the slackers. Even that has been fun because I talk much shit to these lazy fuckers.

These are hard times, but the answer to hard times is hard work. There is no other way. You can only simplify your life so much. After that, you need to get to work. Work will save you. Work will overcome those problems. Work will make you happy. The world and you needs productive effort. Work will change your life for the better. I guarantee it.

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