Sep 15th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Thought of the Day
Unlike the guy who runs Lehman Brothers, the guys who clean the bathrooms in the Lehman Brothers office have, as best one can tell, been doing an excellent job. And yet if the company going under results in everyone involved losing their jobs, the guy who runs Lehman will wind up being better off than the guys who clean the bathrooms. This is because in the United States of America, hard work is the way to get ahead.
41 Responses to “Thought of the Day”
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September 15th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Well, the bathrooms will still need to be cleaned, probably by the same people, even if Lehman is no longer the owner or occupant of the building. But don’t disagree with the overall sentiment here.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Running a 50 billion dollar enterprise down the shitter is tougher than it looks, Matt.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
The Lehman guy belongs to a better union, so his retirement benefits are better.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Yet another thing Matt is unclear on:
“Life isn’t Fair”
For Matt in particular, we need to add this:
“Attempts to make it fair result in making things worse”
September 15th, 2008 at 9:19 am
James Robertson, many countries have proven over very long periods of time that ‘Attempts to make it fair’ make it better, not worse.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:22 am
No, no, Matt! You don’t understand! The guys who run Lehman Brothers had no idea this could happen, and are therefore completely blameless and deserve to be better off because they are really smart. Plus, overall the economy is doing very well!
September 15th, 2008 at 9:23 am
“Attempts to make it fair result in making things worse”
Which is why Robertson doesn’t do anything at all. Somehow or other, fools pay his rent, fix his meals, clean his bottom when he messes, etc. Because, after all, attempts to make life fair just make things worse.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I’m going to squat over James Robertson’s head, and take a big steaming dump. When he complains that I’m treating him unfairly I’m just going to tell him that trying to fix it only makes it worse. Then I’ll take another dump on his head.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I’m pretty sure that guys who competently clean bathrooms in NYC won’t have too tough of a time finding new employment. They also get unemployment and don’t have to work with ridiculous Wall Street types any more. On the other hand, the traders and risk-management guys who ran a 158-year-old company down to bankruptcy are probably going to be unemployed for a while and face significant pay cuts when they do find new employment.
Also, remember that people experience happiness relative to their expectations and their peer group. Guy with a leased BMW and $2 million apartment is going to feel like a tool trading down to a Honda and living in Brooklyn, watching the GS guys take over all his old business. Janitor is already used to riding the subway and living in the Bronx – no decline in self-image or happiness.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Also, remember that people experience happiness relative to their expectations and their peer group. Guy with a leased BMW and $2 million apartment is going to feel like a tool trading down to a Honda and living in Brooklyn, watching the GS guys take over all his old business. Janitor is already used to riding the subway and living in the Bronx – no decline in self-image or happiness.
Cue clip from “Caddyshack” where the guy is grinding down Ted Knight’s golf spikes.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:11 am
> This is because in the United States of America, hard work is the way to get ahead.
Hard work is not the way to get ahead, nor has it ever been. Smart work (i.e. doing what people need the most) is the way to get ahead. Work smarter, not harder.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:35 am
for example, james robertson, even sarah palin thinks title IX was a good thing.
and of course the civil rights and voting rights acts made life fairer: disaster in your mind?
one could go on, but the tiresomeness of right-wing boilerplate exhausts me….
September 15th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Attempts to make it fair result in making things worse…
Yeah, because ever since OSHA, the Americans with disabilities act, social security, title nine, the 40 hour work week, the voting rights act, and the minimum wage, everything has been much worse!
September 15th, 2008 at 11:07 am
This is because in the United States of America, hard work is the way to get ahead.
Yes, we’d all be a lot better off if Richard Fuld and and his colleagues had spent their lives scrubbing toilets.
Matt, you’re unusually high on the stupid-meter today.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Yes, we’d all be a lot better off if Richard Fuld and and his colleagues had spent their lives scrubbing toilets.
Er, yes? Their industry is a pox on society.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Fuld lost over half a billion dollars in the stock tanking. He’ll be fine, but losing the equivalent of a sports team in net worth sucks.
I don’t expect anyone to feel sympathy for him, but to say that Fuld got out of the situation unscathed is patently untrue.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Mo: Something tells me Mr. Fuld won’t be choosing between food and rent anytime soon.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Er, yes? Their industry is a pox on society.
The fact you think so is pretty frightening.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:59 am
The idea that, after what we’ve just seen, anyone could defend Lehman Brothers executives as providing an essential service to society is, in fact, frightening.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
anyone could defend Lehman Brothers executives as providing an essential service to society is, in fact, frightening.
Clearly you don’t understand how anything works in our economy. If they were not providing essential services, no one would be all that worried about Lehman, Bear, Wamu, AIG, falling apart.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Title IX was a good thing, unless you happen to be a guy in a less favored sport at a school that can’t get enough women to try out for sports. Because then, in the interest of “fairness”, mens sports are cut to make them equal.
This is what the left calls progress
September 15th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
unless you happen to be a guy in a less favored sport at a school that can’t get enough women to try out for sports. Because then, in the interest of “fairness”, mens sports are cut to make them equal.
Boo-fucking-hoo.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Point of order — when I worked for Lehman Brothers, the bathrooms were actually notoriously nasty and dirty — so much so that at one point, a delegation of males visited the female bathroom, and a delegation of females visited the male bathroom on our floor because neither could believe the other one was worse (for the record, the females agreed that the male bathroom was worse).
Of course that was many years ago, in a different building from the one that Lehman most recently occupied, and it’s highly likely that the lack of cleanliness was due to management penny-pinching, not lack of competence on the part of the cleaning staff. But still…
September 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
nice comeback on title IX, james: you do know that after the civil rights act and the voting rights act changed the playing field to some degree, it actually became harder for overt white racists to be elected in the south.
boy, what a terrible blow to american society.
yet i notice that you didn’t make that point: i wonder why not….
PS. nobody makes a college cut funding for some guy somewhere – the college can choose to live without any federal funds instead. see how many sports slots would be left over at that point….
September 15th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Great post as always, but why should hard work be rewarded?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Fool me once… shame on… me…
Fool me twice… uh…
WON’T GET FULD AGAIN!
September 15th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
The fact you think [their industry is a pox on society] is pretty frightening.
Read your fucking Bible, “right.”
Title IX was a good thing, unless you happen to be a guy in a less favored sport at a school that can’t get enough women to try out for sports
Well, James, you know what they say…
September 15th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I’m constantly amazed at the way the left looks at fairness. It’s not enough to improve the lot of people who’ve been discriminated against; you have to also punish those who are descended from the people who did the original discrimination.
Why this is considered a good thing is beyond me. I’m all in favor of opening up additional opportunities – but how does it help women to shutter existing teams? It’s not as if getting rid of a tertiary men’s sport adds space for women. If it did, you might have a decent point. All it does is pull opportunities from people who haven’t discriminated against anyone.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
It’s not as if getting rid of a tertiary men’s sport adds space for women.
James, I know you’re a Republican, so this may be a difficult concept to grap, but resources are finite, and when compiling a budget, it’s important to allocate expenditures with some regard to the amount of revenue coming in.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
james, the notion that if i didn’t personally discriminate my hands are clean is frickin’ absurd.
generations of discrimination created the conditions that exist today: how can you claim otherwise?
even more to the point, though, is the fact that you seem to be of the opinion that even though all the taxpayers in this great land are responsible for federal monies to colleges, and even though everyone in college pays the same tuition, it was fine for de facto discrimination in favor of male sports participation to continue on.
care to justify that?
and i notice that you still don’t want to take on the notion that jeez, those awful civil rights laws made it harder for overtly racist whites to win elections in the south, and i can’t help but wonder why you think it’s ok to be “unfair” to overtly racist whites? we’d really like to know….
September 15th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Actually cgaros, the odds are pretty good that the people who clean the bathrooms won’t get unemployment benefits. For one thing, they may well be misclassified as “independent contractors” rather than employees. For another thing, their wages are low enough that unless they work full-time (which is unlikely), they probably won’t hit the earnings triggers.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Howard, what James is arguing is that punishing people living today for crimes committed by their ancestors (or by people who weren’t their ancestors but were members of the “white” group) doesn’t make sense.
If you disagree, which Indian nation can we give all your possessions to?
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