The 1%

We have all been inundated by them. We hear about them constantly in the news. The term has leaped in popularity. The 1% ers.

But this ramble isn't about THAT one percent. It's about the other one percent. You don't know who they are? Most don't, but they have a tremendous influence on our lives ... a negative one.

Yesterday at the store I was working diligently to put product on the shelves. It's that time of year where we are getting ready for back to school. Yes kiddies, you haven't been out a month and already the notebooks are hitting the shelves. But I digress. One of the challenges to the volume of work to be done is speed. One must slice open boxes with precision, time after time after time. In the past, that was easy, but somewhere down the line, that changed.

Why? Because some asshole somewhere couldn't figure out how to properly use a sharp razor knife and likely cut himself into oblivion. By his (and I'm using that term as a general term for mankind) utter stupidity I am forced to now use a safety knife that couldn't cut wet butter. With my old handi-cutter, I can take the top off a box in literally three seconds. What a safety cutter does is shield the blade so you can barely get it to the cardboard. What we lose in productivity we make up for in the cost of the one percenter to keep his job which he isn't likely qualified to do. He not only costs the company money from lack of productivity, he also cost them money to pay for his workman's comp claim he brought on himself.

Think about the products you use around the house. Ever try to cut through scotch tape with the plastic cutter that comes with it? It stretches out most of the time and never cuts. You can thank the one percenter for that. Now-a-days we're forced to use products that don't work because someone stupid can't cut paper with scissors.

Ever wonder why lawnmowers have all those warning labels on them? There is a well-known story of two highly intelligent individuals who thought it was a good idea to trim their hedges with a running power mower. Yep, you guessed it; lawsuit. Now, I'm not against companies making safer products. Look at where the automobile has come from? The real problem is the one percenter who doesn't use a product the way it was intended and then points the finger at the manufacturer.

Even wonder why most commercials for products come with half the commercial filled with a man talking so fast not even his own mother could understand him? Warning labels.

It's time we take our products back from the one percenters and let natural selection take its rightful place again in the world.