unionized stupidity

So a little while ago, it came to my attention that some of the more influential (at least in their minds) liberal webloggers of the internet were considering creating their own weblogger’s union, after a fashion. Now, as a free-market type myself, I have never really understood the need or point of unions in this day and age. Sure, once upon a time, they did serve a remarkably important purpose in ensuring that workers got fair and adequate representation in their workplaces… but in these days where just about anything is flyable as a frivolous suit, unions are just adding insult to injury.
However, the very thought of a weblogger “union” is laughable, at its very best. Webloggers are, by and large, a chaotic, non-standardized group of individuals, and attempting to stuff them all in an organization with its own rules, requirements, limitations, and suchlike… well, that is just doomed to failure in its very inception. No one, overarching organization would be sufficient for all of the various factions and subfactions out there; and individual, smaller organizations would not be taken seriously, or would simply be dismissed out of hand as non-representative – which, of course, they would be.
In this particular case, though, the rationale of one of the leaders of the pro-weblogger-union movement, Susan Madrak, caught my attention.

Madrak hopes that regardless the form, the labor movement ultimately will help bloggers pay for medical bills. It’s important, she said, because some bloggers can spend hours a day tethered to computers as they update their Web sites.

“Blogging is very intense — physically, mentally,” she said. “You’re constantly scanning for news. You’re constantly trying to come up with information that you think will mobilize your readers. In the meantime, you’re sitting at a computer and your ass is getting wider and your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you’re constantly using a mouse.”

Now, I am one of those people who can find humor in just about any situation, be it honest-to-god funny, or be it the perverse kind of stuff that people look at you strangely for, and then quitely back away. I just about fell out of my chair after reading the above paragraph, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is generally indicative of the need for a good fisking.
First, I should address the absolutely ludicrous claim that weblogging is physically and mentally “intense”. Well, unless Susan is weblogging from the offensive line of a football team, or, worse, from the front lines of a conflict our troops are currently engaged in, I think it is safe to say that it is far from being physically “intense”. And unless she is currently leading the charge against cancer/AIDS/whatever-the-hell-else, or searching for planets in the heavens, or building better economic models of the global economy, or other such items, I think it would be equally safe to say that it is far from being mentally “intense”. The fact of the matter is that sitting in front of your computer, day in, and day out, happens to be one of the easiest, if most mind-numbing, jobs out there. And reading the news is hard? Well, I suppose if Susan is a product of the “modern” education system we are so proud of here in America, that might be the case… But for anyone with a reading comprehension over that of a middle schooler, and a decent reading rate, keeping up with world/local events enough to find things to weblog about is not exactly the most difficult thing in the world. Hell, I can manage it.
Second, we get to have fun with the physical side-effects of doing just that – sitting in one place for extended periods of time, not performing any sizeable physical activity. Now, this will require a short exercise in logic, so those liberals currently reading this post, feel free to step out for a bit. Actually, you might just want to skip the rest of this post. Alrighty, to start with, we assume every person has free will – the ability to choose their own course of action, given any situation. A safe assumption, I would wager to say. Also, it is probably safe to assume that Susan is a person, so that is covered. Now, also assuming that no one is holding a gun to Susan’s head, forcing her to sit in front of her computer every single day, it can be said that she is choosing to do just that (the sitting-in-front-of-the-computer bit, not the gun-to-the-head bit). Susan, with malice of forethought, is choosing to weblog for extended periods of time, and is therefore choosing to spend extended periods of time in front of her computer. No one is forcing her to do it, except herself. Everyone still with me? Great, moving on.
As a wise man once said, “Everything in moderation, including moderation,” but apparently Susan and her ilk missed that life lesson. It does not take a whole lot of effort to “keep in shape”, and prevent one’s posterior region from expanding to mythic proportions – hell, a good walking routine every day, coupled with some light calisthenics, should be sufficient for most people. No, that amount of light activity will not turn you into Arnie, but it will keep you healthy, and a little more trim than you might otherwise be. As we already mentioned, Susan is choosing to spend a lot of time in front of her computer – a choice made of free will. Apparently, to make matters worse, she is also choosing to spend sufficient amounts of time in front of her computer that her body is suffering for it. Personally, I am computer nerd, and borderline addict. My job requires extensive amounts of time in front of the computer, and I spend a lot of time in front of my own personal box at home. However, despite all that, along with quite a few other duties, enjoyable activities, and other choices, I still have sufficient time to keep myself decently in shape, though age is slowly taking its toll. In fact, more often than not, I choose to make the time to keep myself in shape, forcing myself to step away from the positronic brain for a bit, and get some blood flowing. Susan is – again, of her own free will – choosing not to do this (and then having the unmitigated gall to complain about it, but that is another matter entirely). In short, Susan is choosing to pursue courses of action (or inaction, depending on how you look at it) that are to the detriment of her body… and she knows it.
Third – and this is the good stuff – we come to the culture of entitlement hurdle. As I am sure you all are aware, there are an increasing number of individuals within society who are of the belief that society somehow owes them something simply due to their existence. Imagine someone simply standing in the middle of a crowded room, and then demanding recompense from everyone else in the room for his presence. That is an example of entitlement. And now imagine everyone in the room doing that. That is an example of the culture of entitlement… scary, no? Well, apparently, Susan is of the mindset that her contribution to society as a weblogger, whatever it may be, is deserving of discounted, if not outright-free, health care. At least, that is the only thing I can conclude. Health care for Susan is out there, were she willing to pay for it, but instead she is more interested in finding a way to form a union to help her get that health care… no doubt at a discounted price, otherwise she would be buying it already.
Ok, fine, but here is a short lesson in how free-market economics work, Susan. If people like a product you are providing to them, they will pay you for it. It used to be we paid by barter, these days, little green (and increasingly multi-colored) slips of paper work just as well. However, if people do not like the product you are providing to them, they will not pay you for it, and will go somewhere else and pay someone else. If you are not making enough money doing what you are currently doing, you are either not doing it well enough, or not reaching enough people. Now, having visited Susan’s weblog once, I can almost categorically state that the second part is not her problem, and since she does not have horns…
“But wait,” you are probably saying, “Webloggers cannot charge their readers just to read!” Sure they can. Online magazines, newspapers, and the like do it all the time. The problem is, if a weblogger were to charge people who wanted to view his or her content, most readers would simply move on to another weblog – there certainly are more than enough of them out there. And hereby hangs the thread of the problem… Susan is obviously not making sufficient funds from her weblogging to pay for health insurance (to help with medical ailments she chose to accept, by the by). In fact, few webloggers make sufficient money from their webpages to live off… the glory days of ads paying excessive amounts of money are long gone, and unless you have massive amounts of traffic, or dedicate your weblog to writing pay-to-post content, you just are not going to make a lot doing it. Of course, that could be why weblogging is almost universally viewed as a “hobby“, but that is neither here nor there… In the end, there are just so many webloggers out there, if even a large group were to start charging for their posts, or charging for people to be able to make comments, or something like that, their readers would just find a new weblog to frequent. With a supply this massively large, it is going to take a lot of demand to cancel it out.
So what is an aspiring weblogger to do when weblogging simply will not pay the bills. Well, my response would be, “Get a job.” Susan’s response would be, “Get someone else to pay the bills.” One can only come to the determination that Susan falls under the heading of “culture of entitlement”, as she is looking for someone else to pay for the repercussions of her choices. Missed that step, did you? Well, she made the choice to sit in front of the computer for extended periods of time, weblogging. She understood (or at least now understands) that this choice was and is detrimental to her body, but is continuing to do it. Also, she is fully aware that this choice has prevented her from pursuing other actions which would make securing health insurance easier (either by getting a job that pays better than weblogging – not difficult, considering, or getting a job that provides health insurance in and of itself). As such, aware of the sliding condition of her body, Susan is pursuing other means of securing health insurance… and paying a normal price for it probably is not on the list. She could do that in and of herself right now – forming a union to secure health insurance is only done to try and strong-arm lower rates out of the companies in question… and there is the problem, ladies and gentlemen.
Susan is of the mindset that her contribution to society as a weblogger is worthy of recompense. To hell with everyone else who has not donated money to Susan, or has not clicked on her advertisement links, or done some other action to provide her money. Her opinion is the only one that matters, and she will get what she wants, no matter the cost to other people. After all, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and if she is getting a discount on health insurance, someone is going to have to pay the balance. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the finest example of the liberal mindset I have seen in a while – a person chooses to do something that is a detriment to themselves, and then demands sufficient payment/services/products from other people in order to compensate for doing the thing that is hurting them as much as they like. And I suppose those other people are supposed to simply thank Susan for her contribution (regardless of whether or not they know about it, care about it, or give two cents about it) and pay up, right? From each according to their ability, and to each according to their need, right?
Sorry, but that ain’t how it works… at least not yet, and hopefully not ever. Payment is rendered for services and products provided and found worthy. I sincerely doubt Susan provides anything to health insurance companies, and considering the fact that those to whom she does provide something do not consider those products/services worthy of payment… well, I guess it is time to go back to the drawing board.
With all of the things making come-back tours these days, one has to wonder what happened to personal responsibility and accountability. Of course, I suppose if someone is forced to take responsibility for their choices, they cannot then turn around and try and blame someone/something else, or try and convince other people to support their activities, when those activities are obviously damaging to themselves. I mean, who would pay for medical insurance for someone who repeatedly shocks himself with house current, by his own choice. But, these days, who would not pay for health insurance for a cruel victim of society, unfairly addicted to current by evil voltage-peddlers? After all, not doing so might get them sued.
Susan, here is a hint: If you cannot afford health insurance by way of your current “job”, get a better-paying job, or learn to live without health insurance. If you do not like the way your body is heading due to your excessive laziness, stop being lazy and get out there and exercise once in a while. But for the love of Christ, being a lazy little whiner and demanding something from someone else is not a way to get anyone on your side – it is just a surefire way to get pity at the best, anger at the worst. It is high time for you, supposedly an adult, to learn that you have to earn what you receive, and anything else is robbery.
Hell, I wasted enough time writing this post already, and need to start doing some of that exercising myself… Catch you all on the flip side.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, 123beta, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Big Dog’s Weblog, Shadowscope, Webloggin, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, , Pursuing Holiness, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, third world county, Allie Is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Wake Up America, Gone Hollywood, The Yankee Sailor, CatSynth.com, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.