The Blog of takhar

A recent discussion I had with a stranger while going for a walk has sparked my curiosity about social issues again.

Optics matter a lot when trying to solve an issue or problem or just generally understanding a situation.

We both are from a similar background, in terms of upbringing and lifestyle. But somehow we think quite differently on the same topic.

The main topic was about earned income, specifically of salaried workers.

We both noted how official wages have stayed nearly flat for decades, yet people seem to be getting by seemingly just fine, without any widespread protests other than a few complaints here and there.

This stranger is also a wonderer like me, and he couldn't reconcile how people are managing, knowing that the economic system is quite broken already and should've been reformed by now.

I told him that people have figured out ways to earn more money outside of their salary work.

It seems obvious to me that many are finding alternative income streams such as side businesses, freelance/contract work, and even informal trading.

What he couldn't understand was how this was possible. He reasoned that salary work, in terms of effort, can already be incredibly time-consuming, so how do people have the energy or time to do something else to earn money outside the salary box?

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A Secret To Surviving On A Flat Salary

By this point in the conversation, I began to realize that this guy wasn't exposed enough to the practical, day-to-day realities of modern employment, particularly in public service, despite how seemingly sensible he talked on economic matters.

Wearing my "true"self, I decided to throw a rather cynical, albeit well-observed, theory into the conversation.

I told him salary work now, especially for governmental organizations, is a kind of joke and suggested that many employees don't really go to work and do the work when they go to work.

What they often do is just clock in and then go about doing their real business which is usually outside the scope of their official duties.

They might run personal errands, work on side projects, or simply waste time while getting paid.

There's no dire consequences for such negligence of duty.

Inefficiency As A Case Study

This brings to mind my own experience.

Remember when I applied for an ID Card last February and made a post about how inefficient the process was, and that I was hoping it would be ready in three weeks or a month (because that's what the officials told me)?

Well, it's nearly six months now and my ID Card isn't ready! I've now heard that there are some who have been waiting for a year or more for their ID Card to be ready. Sigh.

Frankly, if these officials were really doing their jobs properly, then such delays wouldn't be the case. The system would function smoothly, and citizens wouldn't have to wait endlessly for basic services.

I think this is not a bug, it's a feature of a broken system that many have learned to exploit.

In Need Of A Reset

When I told this stranger that the current system is not just broken by outside forces beyond our control, but it has also been corrupted by inside forces who've taken advantage of the brokenness, he immediately started shaking his head in a way that gave me the impression of disbelief combined with disagreement.

I'm guessing here that to his mind, the idea of an entire class of people simply not working while on the clock was a bit unfathomable.

Of course, this isn't happening in every workplace, either governmental or not.

There are pockets of inefficiency and corruption here and there, which can act like viruses that will keep spreading across the entire system when left unchecked.

I think every long standing institution at this point in time needs a form of a reset, throwing almost everything out (except the essence of things) and building anew.

Hopefully, this stranger also got a mental reset of sorts with our conversation, although it wasn't really my intention to challenge his worldview so directly.
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