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November 05, 2003
Those incompetent "free-ware" laggards are everywhere
After reading Howard Strauss' The FREE, 0% APR, Better Sex, No Effort Diet article showing the open-source/free-software movement for what it really is, I did some research to see if this something-for-nothing mentality is a software phenomenon only, or if it may have infected other areas of society.
Boy was I surprised. It turns out that the "open source" disease is rampant and infectious. I found numerous examples of untrained, obviously marginally-competent individuals posing a threat to legitimate, qualified private-enterprise-employed professionals.
The professional automobile remote-hands business is under threat by thousands, maybe millions, of completely unqualified individuals who every day "help" other randomly-encoutered people, with tasks such as "jump-starting" (electrically re-powering), "tire changes", "running out of gas", and even "getting stuck". Why someone would trust an unqualified, untrained, unknown and unpaid person to deliver these services is beyond me. Obviously these people are hoping that by providing the service without charge, they will gain the experience to get a high-paying job in the automotive remote-hands business, and develop a customer base in the process.
Even the fact that these "samaritans" (as they're sometimes called) refer to their customers as "strangers" clearly indicates the unprofessional, short-term, nature of the relationship, when clearly what people most want in these situations is to form a long-term mutually-beneficial relationship with the professional who shows up fully equipped to do the job.
I found similar infiltration rampant in our schools (untrained moms acting as wanna-be teachers in the classrooms, lunchrooms and libraries), hospitals and rest homes (thousands of unpaid people taking jobs from professional clowns, readers, nurses and counselors), "homeless" shelters (where unemployed chefs were being served "food" by unpaid untrained food servers), and various clubs where teenage children were being deliberately trained how to replace professional mentors, by unpaid, untrained mentors. "Neighbors" are taking jobs from the security industry by reporting (what they, in their unskilled minds, think is) suspicious activity at nearby houses. They regularly take jobs from lawyers, insurance agents, and money from innocent passers-by, by "clearing snow" (if you could call it that, you should see the "equipment" they use to do it) off sidewalks of other houses owned by equally incompetent people.
Something has to be done about this. But I pretty much gave up hope when I found out that Our President of these United States (who I also found out has no formal education or training as a United States President, and must have taken the job because he was unqualified for a much better-paying position in the private sector) has become the worst enemy of the hard-working professionally-trained ... professional. He is calling for "volunteers" to work for free and undermine and eliminate high-paid professional jobs. Check this out: http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/
Obviously the future of our country, and the capitalism we all enjoy(ed), is at stake. Let's do all we can to eliminate the "free" labor movement, and get highly-paid, trained, competent professionals to do the work they're entitled to do.
Posted by pete at November 5, 2003 10:14 AM
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Comments
Well said, although I found myself somewhat irritated that I wasted the time to read Strauss' article.
Posted by: Michael Kruckenberg at November 6, 2003 12:05 PM