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darren_strangerToday, i will mostly be bitching about.. dishonesty.
i'm not talking about theoretical questions of 'white lies' or
technicalities of 'lying' vs 'misleading' or whether deception is inherently wrong or any of that shit. i'm talking about straight out shifty, unscrupulous, self-serving cheating - the sort of thing where people don't think they should have to pay their share of tax, not because of any philosophical objections to the government or whatever, but because they just don't want to, where faulty speed cameras are an opportunity to get out of fines where you know you were speeding, or where it's okay to rip off an insurance company for something you know you're not entitled to because you don't want to pay for it yourself. Perhaps dishonesty isn't the exact word to describe what i mean - perhaps it's more a simple lack of ethics.
i got thinking about this recently, after a casual conversation with a couple of people at my taekwondo club. During the course of the conversation it happened to emerge that none of us would consider cheating on a tax return. It was no big deal, just something that none of us could see the point of. But what struck me wasn't that attitude, but the fact that i found it *surprising*. It made me realise that i had almost come to take it for granted that it was something *unusual* for someone to not cheat on something like that. It really got me that such a small thing seemed like a breath of fresh air to me, and i began to notice just how much the dishonesty around me was really starting to shit me. Everything from the tax agent who says "let's just put it down as twice that" to insurance fraud and wriggling out of speeding fines.
Now, i know nobody's totally honest or ethical, as we're all 'just human'. i often find i'm thinking of myself as some goody-two-shoes Ned Flanders type (so much that it shits me sometimes), despite things like this drawer next to me full of copied CDs that i have no intention of buying the originals of, or all those pens that somehow find their way home from work. But i realise, apart from a certain level of cutting slack for 'human weakness', it's also because that seems like nothing in comparison to the cesspool of rampant, self-serving dishonesty that i seem to be immersed in so much of the time, that makes me feel like a frigging saint by comparison. Or a sucker.
It does make me wonder though - do i have expectations set too far to the Ned Flanders end of the scale, or am i just noticing whichever arseholes are more dishonest than me? Is it worth giving a shit, or should i just get over it? Is most of the world like this, or do i just need to find a new job?
i'm not talking about theoretical questions of 'white lies' or
technicalities of 'lying' vs 'misleading' or whether deception is inherently wrong or any of that shit. i'm talking about straight out shifty, unscrupulous, self-serving cheating - the sort of thing where people don't think they should have to pay their share of tax, not because of any philosophical objections to the government or whatever, but because they just don't want to, where faulty speed cameras are an opportunity to get out of fines where you know you were speeding, or where it's okay to rip off an insurance company for something you know you're not entitled to because you don't want to pay for it yourself. Perhaps dishonesty isn't the exact word to describe what i mean - perhaps it's more a simple lack of ethics.
i got thinking about this recently, after a casual conversation with a couple of people at my taekwondo club. During the course of the conversation it happened to emerge that none of us would consider cheating on a tax return. It was no big deal, just something that none of us could see the point of. But what struck me wasn't that attitude, but the fact that i found it *surprising*. It made me realise that i had almost come to take it for granted that it was something *unusual* for someone to not cheat on something like that. It really got me that such a small thing seemed like a breath of fresh air to me, and i began to notice just how much the dishonesty around me was really starting to shit me. Everything from the tax agent who says "let's just put it down as twice that" to insurance fraud and wriggling out of speeding fines.
Now, i know nobody's totally honest or ethical, as we're all 'just human'. i often find i'm thinking of myself as some goody-two-shoes Ned Flanders type (so much that it shits me sometimes), despite things like this drawer next to me full of copied CDs that i have no intention of buying the originals of, or all those pens that somehow find their way home from work. But i realise, apart from a certain level of cutting slack for 'human weakness', it's also because that seems like nothing in comparison to the cesspool of rampant, self-serving dishonesty that i seem to be immersed in so much of the time, that makes me feel like a frigging saint by comparison. Or a sucker.
It does make me wonder though - do i have expectations set too far to the Ned Flanders end of the scale, or am i just noticing whichever arseholes are more dishonest than me? Is it worth giving a shit, or should i just get over it? Is most of the world like this, or do i just need to find a new job?
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I think...
Date: 2003-12-02 09:10 pm (UTC)I don't cheat on my taxes. Don't see the point, really. It's too much of a pain in the butt to decuct things anyway, so um... why bother. In fact, there's been years when I haven't claimed half the stuff I should, cuz it's just too hard.
I pay my fines, not that I've had any in an age, but still...
I guess I'm leaning more towards Ned, right there with you :-)
Re: I think...
Date: 2003-12-02 09:53 pm (UTC)Re: I think...
Date: 2003-12-02 09:56 pm (UTC)Some of it is business tax vs. personal - people who run their own businesses (sp?) like to declare anything and everything they can (especially small business).
Me, I'm just way too lazy to keep all my receipts, add up my mileage, blah blah blah. I pays my taxes. Nothing to hide, move along.
:-)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-02 09:23 pm (UTC)You know those WWJD slogans the christians of america are so keen on?
I've just found myself, unbidden, thinking of it in terms of What Would Neddie Do. :)
I'll get me coat.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-02 09:38 pm (UTC)but i guess in veiw of tax cheats, you can almost see why..
I mean the Packers of the world barely pay a cent on thier billions so why should Mr & Mrs average pay $500 they cant afford if they can fiddle it down to $400..
no subject
Date: 2003-12-02 09:45 pm (UTC)Well, much of this ire relates to a certain millionaire of my acquaintance, though Thorf's recent post about defamation issues has made me too cautious to have the rant i really want to.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-02 11:08 pm (UTC)When he went down to Centerlink (or whatever they were called at the time), he declared this on the forms he was asked to fill in. They told him that I would need to supply documentation regarding my income. Did that. Then they said I would need to come in for an interview to sign paperwork verifying the joint income statement information. I take time off work to go down to Centrelink and be made to feel like scum. It then transpires that I earned too much for him to receive a benfit, and the person conducting the interview proceeds to tell us how to fake a seperation and for him to then reapply under a different address.
This pissed me off for a number of reasons:
1. My income information hadn't changed since the first time they were told - so why did I need to take a day off work to be told "No".
2. We had declared the relationship becuase of the ads being run at the time to dob in a dole cheat.
3. As a taxpayer I was REALLY pissed off that they would be telling people how to rort the system.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 12:07 am (UTC)honest/dis/honest
Date: 2003-12-03 08:48 am (UTC)On the other hand, I have no problem at all with blowing through speed limits -- but I'll pay my fine without trying to get out of it if I'm caught.
I'm very much a cost/benefits type of person, I'll obey rules that make sense to me, but I won't obey them just because they are rules.
I'm pretty rabid about sticking to agreements, though.