Planet of the hucksters.

[Cyrano]

I just received my first recorded cell phone sales call. And, yes, I signed up for cell-phone no-sales calls more than a month ago. But this unwanted call got me to thinking about much of what is wrong with the human species.

We evidently are now living on a planet where most people survive by selling something to someone else. It seems to me that somewhere along the evolutionary path, something went wrong. At one time there was enough of everything on this planet to provide the necessities of life for all. Today, being a salesperson is one of the few ways to either eke out a living, or, depending on your level of skill, the accumulation of wealth, or super wealth.

If it's not in your nature to convince someone to buy something from you, then you damn well better be adept in one of the arts or sciences, or a hermit capable of living through your own self sufficiency. And even if you aren't a "salesperson," you probably work for an entity that sells things to people whether they need it or not. (This is not meant as an insult. It's a reality.)

But back to my recorded cell phone sales call. Who gave anyone the right to interrupt a moment of my life? And where did they get the impression that they could do it with a recording that would allow them to save more moments of their own lives by not wasting time talking to me? (The same has been true since the telephone was invented, or for that matter, since human speech evolved.)

Not being either scientifically gifted or artful enough, I am considering becoming a hermit. But even being a Jeremiah Johnson type means learning survival skills that I don't currently possess. Either that, or live in a cardboard box. Then again, given the rate of global warming, I might not have to worry about it too much longer.

This post is not meant as an insult to what you have to do to provide for yourself and your family. Rather, it is a rant about what we are as opposed to what we could be if only the better attributes of human nature could prevail.

On edit: Headline change.

[Deja Q]

1. "social darwinism"

:shrug:

[postulater]

2. I lived in a tipi for a year

I found out I couldn't smelt the ore to make the cast iron pan I used and then realized it was OK to have people who specialize in a task.

Selling is the art of getting someone to value your time and skill enough that they will give you enough of their time and skill to make it worthwhile for you to do the thing you like to do. The value you add is your profit. There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

It's somewhere between there and corporate capitalism that things get screwed up.

[Cyrano]

3. But what if no one wants or needs the thing you " ... like to do?"

I'm sure there are many who could be master buggy whip makers. But since it's an outdated skill, do you call your buggy whips "state-of-the-art" fan belts?

[postulater]

5. That sure does happen

My great great grandfather was a harness maker. Times changed and he went into the saloon business. That's one business that never goes out of fashion I guess.

[Genanderson]

4. The thing is

"At one time there was enough of everything on this planet to provide the necessities of life for all."

I'm not sure what picture you are envisioning when you consider humanity's history, but it sounds like you believe the planet gave us everything we needed without anyone having to work for it. And now you believe we are enslaved by our negative attributes that are making us work hard just to stay alive.

If so, you are badly mistaken, for people have always worked hard. Before, we were much more vulnerable to plagues and diseases, famine and mother nature's fury. The average life span was but a fraction of what it is now. Back then, people had to work hard just to survive.

Today, at least in most western societies, that is generally not the case. Many people no longer have to work hard to survive, for the very basic necessities of life that were formerly so hard to come by are now easy to achieve.

Rather, we are now working hard to thrive, and there is the difference. I can afford food, housing, clothes and utilities, but can I afford the best food every day? Can i afford the largest house or the finest clothes or the most stylish car? No. And to do that, i'll need to work hard. But if I work hard to earn the best things life has now to offer by selling someone something of value or any of the other methods you've listed, is that inherently wrong?

I don't believe so, for wanting the best for oneself and those we care about is not some negative divergence from the proper evolutionary path, but rather the very characteristic of human nature that has gotten us to where we are today: a highly technologically advanced society that can sustain a human population far greater and for far longer than at any time in our past. If you think there is a better course, please explain it, because I can't think what possible "better attributes" you are referrign to that should be prevailing in our human nature.

Go back to the stone age if you prefer, but in the end, i think you'll only be doing yourself a disservice.

[Cyrano]

6. "If you think there is a better course, please explain it."

My repy to you is that if I found a better course, how much would you be willing to pay me for it?

Your post sounds very "Republican" to me, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

Working hard is no longer a means to survival in our system of unregulated capitalism. And if you think I'm full of crap, try talking to disabled veterans who "worked hard" at what they were being paid to do and are now being ignored by our wonderful system that it would seem has regressed to the dark ages.