Pants on fire

"When I was in school, I had to walk nine miles, uphill, both ways..." You know the drill, you've heard your parents or grandparents talk like this a thousand times. For those of you who're getting a touch, uh, mature, you may have even heard these sorts of things coming out of your own mouths. I am particularly guilty of this crime as I have more time to sit around thinking about how much things really have changed, as opposed to concentrating on work, kids, and how many pounds of ground chuck we'll need for the next week. But just because I'm always waxing nostalgic, does not mean that I occasionally don't have a valid point. After all, even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then!

I was in Sears & Roebuck recently, and as is my wont, I stopped by the lawn care section. Regulars will recall that I love nothing better than mowing my yard, and the equipment folks sell for that purpose is a source of nearly endless fascination to me. As I perused the selection of lawn and garden tractors, something became obvious to me. Bigger is apparently better. Amongst the wide variety of tractors available, the smallest thing they offered was a 14 horsepower 42" cut. On the other end of the scale, was a shiny black monster, with a 27 horsepower engine, and a 54" cut. Glancing at all of this glittering man-bait I caught myself thinking 'how much things have progressed' and, 'what leaps we have made' and then it hit me, have things really improved?

As you can probably surmise, I've ridden more than a few lawn tractors in my life. I've mowed more grass than a lot of people will in a lifetime, so I feel duly able to reflect honestly on this matter. While riding mowers and garden tractors are bigger than they've ever been, I'm pretty certain that they're not really any better. I have two riding mowers at my house, a 1998 Murray (that weighs so little that when I was in good health I could load it into my truck by lifting one end after another onto the tailgate), and a late 60's Bolens that has a curb weight of 750 pounds (two healthy men can barely push it on flat ground). Both of them have 12 horsepower engines, and both of them are approximately the same overall size. But that's where the similarity ends. In its day, that Bolens was a top of the line machine. It came with a splined power take off (PTO) that was capable powering a roto-tiller, and an engine with the torque to drag a scrape blade with enough authority to level a gravel driveway. It has a six speed high-low transmission, heavier gearing than the average car, and a frame that would make a modern truck jealous. Yes, both of these machines are ostensibly 12 horsepower, but that Murray barely has enough oomph to drag my fat hind-end around the yard with the deck engaged! So what's the difference?

I think it's simple enough. Back when that Bolens was built, people were proud of what they did for a living. They took pride in their work, and they weren't ashamed of being laborers. In those days, having a job at a factory was not only enough to support ones family, to earn a decent wage, and secure a financial future, it was also something that added worth to ones existence. The men who made that Bolens made sure that it didn't get out of their sight before it was RIGHT! From the engineers on down to the guys who hooked up the battery cables and polished the steering wheel cap, they were glad to have that job, and determined to do it to the best of their ability. It might as well have had their names engraved on the side, and it stood in their stead as a monument to their own quality as men. Nowadays, from the top down, machinery is still engineered to give the best bang for the buck, unfortunately the buck it's giving its bang for is the manufacturer's, not the customer's.

It seems that industry today is more about getting a customer's money once, than sustaining a working relationship. More about the profit margin than brand loyalty or product quality, and manufacturers are certainly not in the business of increasing their employee's personal worth. Not while they're busy raiding their pension funds, and shipping their jobs off to god knows where to save a few bucks an hour. Until we as a country begin to realize we're losing our greatest resource, a confident, proud working class, we'll keep right on hemorrhaging jobs, faith, pride in workmanship, and dedication. Unfortunately, as these thing have died out from the top down, they've also died from the bottom up. As management starting taking profit in larger and larger chunks, labor began whittling away at industry incentives to stay. The brass took it's paycheck, and the grunts sucked the pipeline dry. It seems that the 'Me Generation' of the 70's did a lot more damage than we originally thought.

I fear that people don't realize, that this all consuming desire to have it all, has been the ruination of every great empire and nation since the beginning of recorded history. It enslaves the weak, empowers the evil, and degenerates society to the point that kindness becomes almost a myth. It's not possible to have it all, it never has been. Do you honestly think that Donald Trump, Bill Gates, or the Sultan of frikkin' Brunei is happier to any real degree than you are? Do you have someone you love? Do you have pride in what you do, in what you have done? Are you able to not only survive on your paycheck, but put a few dollars away for a rainy day? Is your health good? If so, you're as wealthy as anyone has a right to be. If you would still like to be stinking rich, ask yourself the following. At what point does the money that a person makes begin to cause another to bleed, and when is enough, enough?

FOTNO