Selfish Destruction: Or a Kick in the Ass to Unrestrained Competiveness

Inspiration: Karma Polic by Radiohead/Stressful day at work
Category: Rant

I apologize in advance for the spelling and disorganization. I wrote this on the fly, in a hurry, and have not edited it yet.

"Give me more, even if its means less for you, give it to me now, I deserve it. Now!" The endless demanding of the selfish individual weaned on a capitalistic upbringing can not understand that he ultimately hurts himself by grabbing for a bigger piece of the pie. There is a limited amount of things; food, money, fresh water, breathable air, ozone, space, time. Time is the thing we lose the most when we fight, kick, scratch, lie, cheat and steal to get what "we deserve, what we are entitled to." I have a client (for lack of a better term and to protect their identity) who constantly calls me to discuss his claim. The issue: a $50 parts price differance between an aftermarket part and a new part. The laws of my state allow me to use an aftermarket part, and the parts we use are certified by an independant agency that tests that these parts have the same form, fit and function as an original manufactured part. In addition, the constraints of my job keep me from using an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) part when an quality aftermarket part is more cost effective. Anyway, the point is I chose to use a part that after repairs and paint will be indistinguishable from an oem. If it happens to not look the same I would of course authorize additional repairs and the use of a oem part. This is not a selfish act on the part of a big insurance company. No it is a fair and reasonable solution that is beneficial to all. The client gets his car back the way it looked before, my company keeps its cost down, hopefully makes a profit (and we are not like the Oil companies, are goal is a reasonable 4% profit), stockholders make money, employees keep jobs, our insured's rates stay reasonable. I explain most of this to client, he doesn't care, he wants what he wants no matter what. Here's where the time thing comes in. First he calls and threatens to sue, then he calls saying suieng over $50 would be a waste of his time (No, really?!), then he calls and says he is going to start a blog about how crappy my company is, then he calls saying he is going to write a letter to the editor of the local paper, then he calls saying he talked to his son who is a cop and that he should be getting money for diminshed value on his car, and I'm sure he will call tommorow with something else. This guy seems reasonably intelligent and thus probably makes a decent living (lets guess $20/hour minimum). Just on the phone with me he has spent probably an hour($20), he has probably spent an hour on the phone with repair shop($20), he will spend conservatively five hours on his blog($100), spend another hour writting and submitting a letter($20), will spend at least two hours getting the documents together to claim diminishment of value ($40), he probably has spent a few hours talking to people about this disagreement($60). So for a $50 disagreement he has spent or will spend: $20 + $20 + $100 + $20 + $40 + $60 = $260 plus the incalculable oportunity cost of thinking about this instead of enjoying life. All this because he had to have what he felt intitled too. This is selfish destruction. Besides hurting himself, he has taken up more of my time which could have been spent resolving claims for others. You may ask, aren't you wasting time by ranting about this? I say no, writting helps me to release pent up emotions and to get my chaotic thoughts on paper in a more organize manner. Writting this I also realize that I too waste valuable time trying to fulfill my non-essential selfish claims (no pun intended). We all do this. It is a fullish waste of our most precious resource, time. Cherish it, spend it with your friends and family, in intellectual pursuits, being entertained, but don't spend it trying to get something you don't really need.