Is The Government Anymore Dishonest Than The Individual…
When they all cheat the same?
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln.
It was a miracle — a new bread place opened up not too far from my house, and they were actually good.
I quickly got into their sardine bread — fluffy, a good quantity of sardine, and freshly made. No matter the time of day, there was human traffic. I wasn’t the only one who was enjoying it.
Well, the price of the bread increased. I did not really care because the price of everything else is skyrocketing.
Except,
The first time it happened, I thought, surely, this must be a mistake. How do you sell sardine bread without any sardines inside? Just sardine oil rubbed generously on the body of the bread.
I took pictures and went back there the next day. I felt like a fraud. Maybe they will think I was trying to dupe them. But then again, I felt cheated.
I made my complaint.
Truthfully, their response felt dismissive. It also made me feel a bit more like a fraud:
Must be a mistake. Buy another one.
I tried to understand.
How many people made similar claims to them? I must be one of many.
So I bought another one.
It wasn’t a mistake.
So we pay more for just dough, for bread advertised as something more?
Nope. I was out.
I haven’t been back in months, but since it is along my way, I noticed that they had lost the human traffic. They were just like every other bakery along the street.
I wonder though:
Do they honestly not know what went wrong?
We are in the pear season, and I love pears. So much.
I also found a customer along my walk so I will buy for myself and my brother who often goes with me, will also buy his. We started to realize that the woman will hide rotted pears inside the fresher ones.
One day my brother said,
Do you see how she keeps pointing to spoiling pears for us to buy? So we, her regular customers should buy the bad pears so that new customers get the fresher ones?
We stomached this until one day, we found another woman. Her pears were bigger, fresher, and more.
We have never made another purchase from the previous woman even when sometimes, the new woman isn’t around. The former pear seller will try to call out to us that she has new pears, but my brother and I will point to our hands,
We already bought.
Many people the world over, blame their governments for every single challenge in the country. Most governments are crap — no arguments from me.
As poor as my country is, the government keeps increasing electricity tariffs while reducing the token value per unit of electricity. So we pay more and get less time for what should be the same units.
It is dubious, frustrating, criminal and there is no recourse. The electricity company has been (somewhat) privatized so this isn’t the government. These are shareholders and CEOs stealing from their customers.
The filling stations are the same. They are owned by individuals and what do they do? They stealthily reduce the meter flow so you pay more for less quantity of fuel.
The telecommunication companies are still the same. They advertise their GB/GG sales for the month, but it is used up within 2–5 days.
Let me be clear — the government is crap, however, governments are made up of people. So many people are dishonest. These dishonest people make up the government. Whatever people complain about in the government, I see them do in their own small/medium and large scale companies.
Many people understand that the costs of raw materials are on the increase. If you want to charge more to cover the costs you incur, that is your right. It is dubious when you increase costs and then reduce quality and quantity.
Why are you complaining that “things are hard” and you are “losing customers” when the truth is, you are just a dishonest human who thinks everyone you meet is a naïve idiot?
Thank YOU for Reading. Buy me coffee?
