Survival of the fittest
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090801553.html?nav=hcmodule
So Richard Hatch from the first "Survivor" has been indicted for tax evasion. I remember how, at the time, everyone complained that he was the most ruthless and backstabbing of the contestants, and how his dishonesty served him well - he played "Survivor" like the game that it was. He's become a motivational speaker, helping others find their way to similar "success".
There have been a lot of comparisons drawn between "Survivor" and the corporate world. A lot of people would give big corporations even more power than they currently have, as we watch them ruthlessly conquer more and more of our daily lives. Those too deeply steeped in corporate culture work the game of life as ruthlessly as Hatch worked the system of tribal councils and immunity. Playing without attachments, loyalties, or ethics gets them where they want to go.
Thankfully, our laws sometimes prevent the bad guys from playing their games with everybody else's money. That's why I often wonder why people are so troubled by "big government". Granted, there's a limit to what government can and should do. But unless we want a bunch of Richard Hatches leading our way, we should think twice about leaving our fate up to natural selection.
posted by Kim @ 11:51 AM
2 Comments:
We wanna be heard, because we speak the truth.
The weird thing about the area where I work, is that you are either wealthy or you're on welfare. The apartment complexes have these 1200 a month units, and 100 are filled with people who make a ton of money, and 15 are filled with people getting assistance. The weird thing is: THERE ARE NO OTHER UNITS. The entire Reston/Ashburn/Herndon/Chantilly area is like this. Your other options are Leesburg, which is totally rednecky, Arlington, which is big-city (where you can live for 800 a month in an ancient studio, whoo!) In those areas, though, you're commuting 30 to 45 min each way. The obvious solution is to live with other people, but the area is so transient that you're often searching for new roommates, and you often don't know at least one of them very well. No wonder the young people of DC tend to be aggressive extroverts - not only do they have jobs in highly public settings like politics, their living situations demand that they live with lots of company and regularly do things like evict problem roommates.
I've totally veered off from the original topic - it's just interesting to see how the economic situation of an area affects who will thrive there. My concern is that on the whole, it's a lot harder to just be "comfortable" in this country. It seems that there are too many people living paycheck to paycheck, and too many with so much money they don't know what to do with it. There are not enough people who work hard, can make an honest but modest wage, and use their resources to sustain themselves. Part of this is the greed of individuals, but part also I think is the failure of the system to keep greedy people in check. I'm not sure if it's that capitalism itself is flawed, or that our particular form of capitalism just needs s few more regulation to make it more fair.
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