Someone in the media once wrote that there is no way to lose with hard work. That, I have found, is wrong. There are many people around the world who are willing to work hard. However hard I were to work as a programmer, I cannot compete with a person in India who can do the same job for $6000 a year. So I am having to change professions to one where I would not have to face that kind of competition.
There are many workers who have lost their jobs to flight of jobs abroad. Most of them were not lazy. They just cannot compete against someone who can do the same work for a much cheaper price.
Sometimes we hear such attitudes as that people are responsible for everything that happens to them. This is a way to sow blindness. It is to get people to fail to see the conditions under which they operate and either blame or credit themselves for things that aren’t their doing. I am no more responsible for the computer industry crashing in 2000 than I am for it growing in the previous decade. And to actually make a truly responsible choice, I must see these conditions and act in an informed way.
I am not being irresponsible here. I am being responsible. I am assaying the conditions under which I operate in order to make an informed choice as to where to direct my efforts.
Bad things happen to everyone. So do good things. If everyone were responsible for everything that happened to them, we won’t be seeing the same people attracting both good things and bad things. And most people attract both good things and bad things. Sometimes they attract them within a day of each other.
I’ve had a lot of good things in my life, and I do not credit myself for all of them. I am aware of the role that other people have had in shaping the reality of my life, both for good and for ill. I am aware of what my parents, my teachers and any number of others did for me. Many people would credit themselves for good things in their lives and blame others for bad things in their lives. I do not do that. Some good things in my life were my doing and some weren’t. Some bad things in my life were my doing and some weren’t. In case of work, I have been on both winning and losing sides of prosperity; and I do not think that I changed for the worse between one and the other.
Is work the answer? Once again, there are many people who are willing to work hard, and anyone in the workplace will be competing against them. I think it works a lot better to help people find their own answers. Those of us who have more knowledge should be available to help them to do that. And then people can make truly informed – and responsible – choice.