Hard work gets you nowhere

When I was a kid, I was told that the keys to success were hard work and perseverance even in the face of adversity. Maybe that works in the movies or maybe even in the fight for a just causes like equality or freedom.  But in the workplace, it's all bullshit.

Don't ever mistake your employer's desire to use you to make themselves rich for the idea they actually care about you.  They don't and you're disposable to them.  If we weren't disposable, we'd have a living wage by now and there would be no outsourcing.  Hard work, loyalty, these are only words.  They won't get you anywhere in your career.

It's not what you know. It's who you know.  It's being related to the boss or sleeping with the boss.  It's schmoozing and kissing the right person's ass at the right time.  That's why we have LinkedIn.  Nepotism and cronyism gets you career advancement.  Luck, being in the right place at the right time, gets you opportunity.  Hard work mostly just gets you tired.

Oh, I'm not saying hard work won't make you feel good, like you might actually be accomplishing something or that you won't want to play down your good fortune by saying you worked hard to deserve it.  I am acknowledging that hard work alone isn't enough.

It shouldn't be that way.  If you work hard for something, you should be rewarded.  That's not the case.  People work hard their entire lives and barely scrape by.  Those lucky enough to get rich, keep getting rich while those not lucky enough to catch the breaks, don't get anything.  It's not fair.  It's capitalism.

It pisses me off when some rich person says God blessed them by giving them money. So God just said fuck you to rest of us?  God doesn't bless you with monetary wealth. Your greed made you rich and God says not to be greedy.  Greed hurts people.  It shouldn't be rewarded.

It pisses me off when someone feeds me a rags to riches story and says anyone can do it.  Bullshit.  Those are flukes, not reality.  The reality is 9 out of 10 people born into poverty will stay in poverty their entire lives.  No, we don't all have the same opportunities in life and hard work alone won't make opportunities magically appear in the ghetto.

I'm such a Debbie Downer, aren't I?

Tough. That's life.

So what do we do about it?  Can we do anything about it?  As long as the world runs on money, the answer, unfortunately, is no.  Not unless you give up what few luxuries you do have to go live in some hippie style commune.  It doesn't matter if you're a capitalist, socialist or communist.  They are all faulty systems because they all run on money.  People crave power and dominion over others and money is the best way to get that.  As long as society accepts that attitude, the poor are screwed.

I suggest rebelling against the entire money making system.  Stop trying to get rich and save yourself the headache.  Do the work you're paid to do with only the effort necessary to do a decent job, but don't take work too seriously.  It's just a paycheck because you need one.  Accept that your boss will be a dick no matter where you go and don't give them the satisfaction of making you unhappy.

But go even further and hit the rich in the only part of their anatomy they care about, their wallets.  Stop catering to corporations and go local.  Shop local, eat local, bank local.  Make a statement that the rich will understand.  You're a human being and you deserve a comfortable and dignified life regardless of your bank account.