"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Bottom-line thinking sinks North American economies
German military leaders always thought in terms of efficiency. How could positions be more strongly protected without thinning forces? How could supply routes be maintained safely and supplies transported quicker? How can we get the most out of a soldier? History shows the result. From these thoughts, the tank, the submarine, and the motorcycle were born. When performance was the focus instead of cost, it allowed for outside the box thinking and one comparatively tiny country held the world by the throat. The blood-soaked misdeeds now lay thankfully in the past, but their legacies have been carried forward to the benefit of mankind. Since then the same innovations have allowed us to ride free with the wind and explore the bottom of the ocean. In England it's professionalism. In any service or profession the standards for dedication, discipline, and knowledge are much higher. It's an approach that does well for their academics, public servants, and military. Tradesmen are generally more knowledgeable of their craft, and often trained to be competent in all facets related to it where in America the same job might be compartmentalized or specialized so that you'd need more people to get it done. Police are generally calmer under pressure and more thorough in their investigations, contributing to lower crime rates and fewer instances of police conduct that would make front page on Unknown News. The British military is a highly disciplined force. They will drill several times a day through any conditions and keep a stiff upper lip about it. They handle the psychology of it differently too. The officers will go through the same dirty and exhausting exercises to promote the idea that they must lead by example and try to foster as much respect for superiors as obedience. The end results tend to be quite satisfactory. You will find no more dedicated and vigilant guards than the ones outside Buckingham Palace and few soldiers with as much sheer grit as the SAS. In America it's generally only the infantry that continues to drill after basic training and the officers drilling you walk leisurely beside you deriding and dehumanizing you as you get up to your eyeballs in mud. The end result is all too often a psychologically unstable soldier with more of an emphasis on blind obedience than actual discipline. In France, it's about enjoyment and running at the peak. In most cases when you ask a Frenchman they can honestly say that they really enjoy their work. In their cuisine, their wines, their arts and their fashions, the pleasure with which they create shines right through. It also rings true in less artistic pursuits. With the kinds of benefits you are guaranteed under French law you're always in condition to work at your peak. For 5 weeks of paid vacation and the luxury of being able to take a day off to recover when I get sick without losing my shirt or my job you'd better damn well believe I'd work my ass off and smile while doing it. Because working conditions are typically excellent, productivity is much higher than operations in North America, where employees have less down time, more worries, and inferior healthcare. It's all designed towards keeping the machine up and running at all times no matter how worn down the gears get, whereas the French keep the machine of commerce running smoother than silk while it's on. The same idea applies to public services. The idea is to keep everything running smoothly and everyone living happily. While not as profitable as working people to the bone, the quality of life is much higher. It doesn't matter how much money you have if you aren't getting something out of it. The French do appear to get that. On a side note those of you who subscribe to the ill-founded belief that the French are cowardly 'surrender monkeys' that can't fight should probably never say that around anyone in GIGN or RAID. (Elite French Anti-Terrorism units and certified bad-asses.) I would also suggest cracking the history books and looking up the Maquis. The French Resistance was doing most of the espionage and legwork during the occupation of France by Hitler's forces. Without them, WW2 would have gone pretty different. Taking a lesson from the Blitzkrieg that tore through France's army while its back was turned, the Maquis perfected small scale lightning raid techniques that left even heavily defended Nazi positions FUBAR'D. GIGN and RAID are just as mean today. Judging the French by what their military did after being crippled by a knife to the spine isn't exactly fair. When we compare ourselves to these three countries, what do we have better? Our products and innovations are junk compared to Germany, who were liberated from concerns of costs and instead focused on what needed to be done and how best to do it. We're inept and unprofessional when compared to the English, who invariably are more knowledgeable and dedicated in their professions but shouldn't let that go to their heads. We're downright unhappy compared to the French, who rarely have to worry about what's going to happen in the worst case and have the luxury of living in the moment. The only thing our approach in life has done to give us any advantage is a slightly larger paycheck and a higher perceived standard of living. But the thing is, that quickly becomes meaningless once you look at the larger picture. For the minimum wages of Canada and the US, you could live almost like a king in the Philippines. But on the same wage right here at home, you'd be living like a hobo. Good luck keeping even a minimum wage job once you've ended up on the street. We have more money but we get less out of it. Essentials are more expensive to buy. Food, clothing, medicine are all made at the lowest cost for the highest return; cheaply produced but expensive to buy. Services such as healthcare are poorly managed and the coverage of those services tends to suffer as cost becomes the bottom line rather than a patient's health. Our public servants put their lives on the line with crap equipment, all cheaply produced with little concern for the lives of those sworn to serve and protect. Britain trains better, France arms better, and Italian police have their vehicles supplied exclusively by Ferrari. When it gets down to it the workings of our society make it so that we have little time to ourselves and even less time to enjoy it causing our physical and mental health to deteriorate quicker. We spend a lot of time trying to convince ourselves we have it better. Maybe it's about time we drop the ego and look at our lives objectively. A lot of people often say "Things didn't used to be like this" and "What happened to the world we knew?" and fail to recognize the opportunity that's arisen for change. The status quo pretty much sucks. If this political shitstorm ever clears
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