Rant on "personal responsibility" and paperwork...

[ljm2002]

...I don't know about you, but I find that the mountains of paperwork required just to live a standard middle class life is really very burdensome.

We've become so brainwashed that we accept that "individual responsibility" means -- among other things -- that each and every individual has to deal with the myriad mountains of paperwork foisted upon us by every organization that wants a piece of our hide: city, county, state and federal government; banks, insurance companies and credit card companies; utility companies -- all of them can and do change the rules at whim, each of them is free to foist upon us their own idea of terms and conditions, as well as their own billing cycles, as well as associated paperwork and record keeping; and it is up to us, John Q. and Jane Q. Citizen, to just buck up and get with the program -- and God forbid you should miss a payment date or otherwise screw up, because the penalties are punitive even for starters. But it's all a matter of "personal responsibility", dontcha know -- because if you were responsible, you'd have enough money to hire someone to wade through the underbrush for you; and if you do not have that, then it's because you're irresponsible to begin with.

Of course, "personal responsibility" does not extend to being responsible for other people -- for heaven's sake, not! It is only a financial matter. Because after all, that's what life is all about, isn't it! Money money money. As in, money coming out of your pockets and into the pockets of the already-filthy-rich.

The best part about the "personal responsibility" mantra, from the point of view of the rich, the filthy rich and the corporate masters and their mouthpieces, is that it can be used as a wedge issue. Anyone who does not accept the paradigm is wrong and bad. Those who have managed their finances well, and have mastered the paperwork, can look down upon those who have not, and can see them as failures who are beneath them -- they can feel *better* than them, they can have *contempt* for them. And it cuts across party lines and ideology, so that's a bonus!

And the corporations, bless their hearts, are totally responsible -- after all, *they* keep up with *their* paperwork. Hallelujah and Praise the Lord, they would never *dream* of letting the paperwork back up, why that would be ... why it would be downright un-American.

In the meantime, we the Great Unwashed continue to sink further and further down, to struggle harder and harder, and to feel the boot upon our necks. And sadly, most people fail to see the utter absurdity and wrong-headedness of the situation. Most of us just accept it as "that's the way it is". We have no sense of ourselves as a cohesive society, or as individuals with RIGHTS to go with all those responsibilities -- and that is sad.

Okay, I guess that's enough for one rant.

</rant>

[villager]

1. Perfectly stated and "spot on!"

n/t

[Sequoia]

2. I hate filling out paperwork.

Hate doing it in the doctor's and dentist's office. Hate it during tax season.

Remember (of course you all do) when the Trade Towers went down and all that paperwork floating around in the sky? I was thinking how meaningless all that paperwork was now (on that day).

No matter where you go: "Here, fill out this paperwork and we'll get back with you."

[truedelphi]

3. In 1996, I spent 28 hours in dealing with my responsibility

As a taxpayer.

Those 28 hours resulted in my filling out my 1040 to the IRS annd reporting the princely sum of $ 18 K.

On the plus side, I did it while at work, so I was being paid while doing it. But it galled me beyond end.

The credit card companies are another matter. At one point, I paid my monthly $ 200 minimum. The money was in my account, but it was a transaction that never got processed. (Despite my doing it on the phone, a privilege for which I paid $9.95!)

My bank said that it was not at fault for the transaction not going through. The credit card said that it wasn't. Both admitted that I WASN'T !!

But when I got dinged $ 29 for failing to make a payment that month, there did not seem to be any recourse to be had for me to get my $ 29 back!! Other than quitting my day job and trying to figure out who in the State of California had set up an agency to which I could appeal.

[ljm2002]

6. Yes, all those little dings add up...

...$9.95 for the privilege of paying instantly on the phone (as if instant payment is not a benefit for the company you are paying), and the instant $29 because you were 1 minute late with payment -- it adds up in a hurry.

And for the poor, and those on the edge, it just amounts to a great big hold that they fall into and often cannot get out of, or will spend years getting out of, while the all-powerful Credit Rating goes to shit, therefore making everything harder, including even acquiring a roof over one's head -- rentals now routinely check your credit rating before they will deign to rent to you.

These asshole corporations are making more money than ever, the American workers are more productive than ever, yet we never see the advantages accrue to us, not ever. Grrr...

[glowing]

4. I have said before, 1 month of most of America not paying their bills

would change the rules very fast.. then they'd be begging us to pay them. It has to be at the same time.. What happens during a depression or recession is that no matter how much those little reps scream and threaten into the phone, you don't have money and probably limited access to another job. Those who still have a job, start hording for fear of falling out. If we had a guarantee that you wouldn't be homeless or whatever, people would genuinely do better. but those above us think the threat of that homeless aspect will keep the populous paying continuously and accepting the system as is.

[ljm2002]

7. Not a bad idea...

...but as I say, the notion of personal responsibility is also a great wedge issue, so that those who manage to keep up with all this stuff will ask "why should I risk my good standing just to prop up those ne'er-do-wells who can't keep up?"

If only we could figure out a way to do it, and get more than 50% of the population to participate, I'd be all for it.

[glowing]

19. Like they say:

When they came for the Gay, I didn't say anything because I wasn't gay, then they came for the Jew, and then the black.. AND when they came for me, there was no one left. Why do you think the c.c. companies are just raising rates to 29%.. you are paying for those who no longer pay. AND what happens when everyone has bad credit, do you think a credit score will matter at that point or that you were organized.. or that now, you've lost a job because the domino effect finally got you. Its the best idea in the world. If we went viral with April 09, the month the Americans did not pay.. things would change really fast. Sure would get the richies demanding some help for the rest of us. AND what are they going to do? If every single mortgage and every single c.c. is not paid in America for 1 month, they will be freaking out... 1 month does not equal a bad score, but it will shake the bankers to the core.. along with our Washington asshats.

[cascadiance]

5. If you ever move from state to state, take care of car reg and license IMMEDIATELY!

I made the mistake of waiting too long (albeit somewhat out of necessity with the winter weather that made me immobile for a few weeks here after moving in).

I had the added problem of trying to pay off the rest of my car loan (had one payment left) so that I could get a vehicle title before going in to get it registered to what I thought might "simplify" things...

But no. After I paid it off, the lien company said they'd send a note to the California DMV within two weeks. Called a few days ago, and they'd said they'd already sent it to them. Called DMV in California and they'd said they had received notice yet, but to change my address online and that would take 72 hours to process, so that they'd send it to my new address (I thought that the bank would take care of that when sending me title). I called back the bank and they said that they HADN'T sent it out yet, but it should go sometime today. I called back the DMV, and told them to make sure that they didn't process this request before they processed my change of address request and send it back to my old address by mistake. They said not to worry. That they are backed up so that they wouldn't process my request before my address change went through. And they said it would take 4-6 weeks to process it and get it to me. I then called up the Oregon DMV, and they said they could give me up to two temporary "travel permits" for 21 days each, but not any more than that before I needed a permanent registration filed (which required my vehicle title). And each of these calls you had to wait for about a half hour in the queue for someone to answer the call.

So I feel like my life's been made more complicated than easier. Knowing what I know now, it probably would have been good for me to have paid off my car loan two months early instead of one month early, so that I could have gotten my vehicle title earlier...

And if I want to get it sent to me earlier from the DMV, I'm supposed to send a self-addressed envelope and some $15 check for this to them. Sheesh!

Ugh! A whole morning wasted! Paperwork sucks!

[ljm2002]

9. I had a similar issue...

...that was even worse because it impacted my ability to get a valid ID and ergo, to be paid by my employer.

I am willing to accept that there is some level of paperwork. But the level of it, and the complexity of it, and the punitive nature of it, and the fact that we have removed the human element and are now beholden to the computerized BS and penalties-penalties-penalties -- that's what I object to.

Seems like no one is ever allowed to use their judgment anymore when dealing with their fellow human beings. And supposedly that means that we have more consistent standards, and less fraud ... ha ha ha.

Now we have fraudsters who deal with amounts that are orders of magnitude larger than in the past -- just take another look at Enron, Bernie Madoff, etc.

[cascadiance]

11. Citizens should be empowered to charge THEIR OWN "processing fees"...

We are always expected to pick up the extra tab when it comes to time spent, etc. even if it is an error made by a company or the government that affected their services to us. They charge us up the ying yang for very small mistakes we might make. It seems we need to have some form of way of recompensing ourselves when companies or the government screws up. That way, perhaps they won't build so much complexity in the process, and will make processes simpler and less error prone to follow from the customer's point of view.

[ljm2002]

16. It would help if we could get back to the idea...

...that both parties to a contract must agree to any change before that change is binding. In other words, stop giving these corporate bloodsucking ticks the power to just send out a little notice in 1-point print saying "Oh by the way, we've just upped the interest by 2% per day, and oh yeah, if you're a minute late on your payment the penalty just went up to $59."

They should have to write the terms in readable type, and have to send it to you in letter form, with your signature required in order to make any change to the terms. And, of course, any of us should be allowed to propose our own changes in such a circumstance, which would discourage the bastards from trying to foist this crap on us to begin with.

[The2ndWheel]

8. Abstraction comes at a price

As we help create a more complex, specialized, and distant world, where we end up as digits on a screen(and how else can society keep up with itself?), any and all information is required. It's not the Information Age because we all get to play on the internet.

[ljm2002]

10. It is unnecessarily burdensome...

...and punitive.

It is unfair to the general population to put the level of burden on us, and to hammer people financially so that they cannot ever get caught up and are left with piss-poor credit no matter how hard they try, because they can't keep up.

The question is, does the system exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve it? I should think the answer is obvious.

I do not object to some level of paperwork, and recognize the necessity. But what we have now is absurd and serves only to put the boot on the middle and lower classes with the punitive nature of how it is handled in general.

[The2ndWheel]

14. "because they can't keep up"

Time to stop running in the race then. Keeping up with who? With what?

"The question is, does the system exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve it?"

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1911taylor.html

[Hannah Bell]

12. yes. one of the multiple ways the ptb steal our lives from us in bits & pieces.

how many hours doing paperwork, how many on hold to gov't agencies & businesses, how many standing in line for "service"...

[mrreowwr_kittty]

13. You are so right about "personal responsibility" being a perfect, and non-partisan, wedge

Every, and I mean every, thread there has ever been on DU about personal debt, bankruptcy, etc. attracts posts from finger-wagging fiscal saints and financial gurus who regale us with what good savers and investors they are and how people who get into debt did so because "they were living beyond their means". If I read one more account from a so-called progressive about how s/he ate ramen in grad school so s/he "knows what it's like to be poor" and how s/he, though a combination of virtue and thrift and financial savvy, now enjoys complete financial security and if they can do it anyone can, I am going to puke. Wait for it... They'll be showing up on this thread any minute now.

I hear ya about all the paperwork too. Amazing how the average person is supposed to be the expert and it's YOUR fault if you get penalized because you are supposed to "do your homework" and "exercise due diligence", while the people who are actually paid (and handsomely at that) to be the experts can screw up with impunity.

[ljm2002]

15. No kidding about the finger-wagging...

...it galls me too. It's not that far removed from the right wing's memes about the shiftless po' folk, and how the homeless should just pull themselves by their bootstraps. No concept about the fact that, once one has fallen into one of life's traps -- regardless of how you got there, it's still a trap, and it can be very difficult if not impossible to extricate yourself without a little help.

And right you are about the paid experts who can screw up, and screw with you, without any consequences for them but with dire consequences for you.

[bobbolink]

17. You want paperwork? Try being poor and having to apply for "help"!!!!

THEN you're know paperwork.

IMPOSSIBLE paperwork.

[ljm2002]

18. Oh I know...

...believe me, I'm ranting about the whole shitload of burden that is placed on all of us. I did mostly talk about financial paperwork, bills, etc... but the burden oppresses all of us and I think it is meant to do so. That's why it pisses me off so much.

The fact that so many systems are computerized is used as an excuse to remove any individual judgment from the process, and leads to fascist attitudes: it has to be done "just so" because that's "just the way it is". And the low-level people that most of us deal with have no real ability to make exceptions, even if they were so inclined. It's people-working-for-the-machine vs. people-beaten-down-by-the-machine, removing any human element or *real* individual responsibility from the process.

I think it's because we are laboring under the illusion that it is somehow okay for us to serve at the pleasure of the machine. It certainly puts the lie to our much-vaunted culture of "individuality". Ha! This society does not value the individual. This society values the rich, the powerful, the successful self-promoters. That's it. The rest of us are expendable, and are not encouraged to view ourselves as individuals, except as members of some group that can be set against some other group, the better to remain oppressed by fighting among ourselves.

[truedelphi]

20. Only thing you left out is that the society also

Values the beautiful.

No wonder those of us in their fifties feel like we have been tossed on a dung heap and left for the carrion. Harder to find work, and although employers cannot state an age preference, they can say things like "peppy" or "enthused" etc.

Much of the job hiring discriminiation against those over fifty has to do with insurance premiums. Getting Universal Single Payer Health Care would mean that an employer did not HAVE to choose a younger person, because as it is now, choosing an older person means a hike in the health insurance premiums for their company.

[Trillo]

21. It's a good one. K & R

Thanks!