Recently an advertisement has been hitting the Melbourne airways that has been giving me severe anger wrinkles. I won’t name the company but they claim to give people ‘a fair go’ and allow them to rent things like computers, plasma televisions and treadmills. You know, life’s essentials. That sentence was meant to be peppered with sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell. The ad depicts a few typical Australians who want to be given this proverbial ‘fair go’. Presumably they can’t get a loan to purchase these ‘necessities’ and this company is claiming to be able to give them what they want for something stupid like a dollar a day.
No one needs a plasma television. No one needs a treadmill and to be perfectly honest no one really needs a computer. If by chance any of these items are required by a person perhaps that person should save up their money and buy it. Yes. I’m talking piggy bank style. I cannot stand the thought of people who are already in financial difficulty being seduced into thinking they need all these ridiculous items and being ripped off by these ‘buy now and pay later’ scams. I do understand that everyone’s financial situation is different and I freely admit that I am very blessed in being an educated middle class Australian woman but if I hear one more minimum wage working idiot who buys his lunch at MacDonald’s, smokes a packet of cigarettes everyday and pumps $200 through the pokies every Friday having a bitch because he can’t afford to get the new play station console I’m going to tell him where to stick it. Along with the girl who works in retail and gets a full beauty treatment every Saturday to the tune of $300 and then takes out a loan to buy a Chloe handbag. She can stick it too.
There are millions of people in this world with the most disgusting sense of entitlement it makes you wonder where they learnt it. Daddy Smaggle has always said to me that if I want something I have to work for it. I kind of assumed that that was a general Australian attitude but clearly there are quite a few people who missed that memo. There’s a lass I know of who is studying (her third degree. When I queried her on her intentions to pay her HECS debt she replied – ‘Oh please! I’ll never earn enough to pay that back.’) and chooses to only work enough to pay her rent and buy bare essentials. She recently took out a loan to go on an overseas trip. Yeah. That was some essential spending there sweetheart. Now up to her eyeballs in debt she was lamenting that she wishes she was a relief teacher (as I am) because I earn so much more than her. ‘Tis true. May I say though that I went straight from year twelve to university, completed my degree in the prescribed four years, never failed, never deferred and graduated on time. Now I am reaping the benefits of my own hard work (and Mamma Smaggle’s constant encouragement) by having an excellent part time job to support myself while I study something I love. Where was she when I was doing this? In Morroco. Smoking weed.
The point of this rant? The world owes you nothing. Aside from the ACTUAL essentials of food, clothing, shelter and water there is nothing that you should be given without having to work for it. As for the plasma television – If I wanted one I could buy one today, no loan required, but I’m not going to do that because I have a shitty little TV/DVD set with appalling reception that does the job just fine. And the money that I saved on this non-essential item can wait for something else. Perhaps I can use it to pay my rent if I get sick and can’t work or maybe buy food if I get fired and I don’t have an income. If, god forbid, either of these things happen I’m lucky. Because I don’t have to pay off a loan for a useless plasma TV that certainly won’t keep me warm if my electricity gets cut off.
Can I share my favourite Daddy Smaggle quote? He is a self made man who owns a spectacularly reputable plumbing business that he built himself through hard work, determination and the undying support of Mamma Smaggle who is his business partner. They are two weeks away from moving into a beautiful home that they built themselves. In passing, a gentleman remarked how lucky Daddy Smaggle is. His reply? ‘Yes. I am lucky. And the harder I work, the luckier I get’.
Share your rant?
Love Lady Smaggle
xxx
For Daddy Smaggle. Happy Father’s Day! I’m so proud of you.
P.S. This rant is aimed at able bodied people who have the physical and mental ability to support themselves financially. I teach special needs kids and do not take lightly the fact that there are circumstances under which people do require assistance.
17 Comments
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So true! You make your own luck.
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Such a eloquent and powerfully written post! we need more Saddy Smaggles in this world!
jess xx -
i mean *Daddy haha
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My high school boyfriend had that quote up while he was studying for TEE! Hehe. I think it is so true though, there are some people I know who just don’t know HOW to work for themselves and expect that they can do the bare minimum and everyone else will pick up the slack. It makes me so angry! I am glad that the Smaggles share this point of view!
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if it were possible to reach inside my brain and pluck out my thoughts on this matter, you’ve done it. I cringe whenever I see those ads on tv, and comment to my mister about it. We never buy anything (except for our house!) without saving for it first. So many people live on credit and have such a sense of entitlement! Bring back good old values like SAVING!!
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Everything you have written is so smack-bang on the mark. Unfortunately we are part of a generation that had never, until recently, experienced hard times. We have been marketed to and offered inappropriate credit limits and told to ‘buy buy buy’ in order to gain happiness and fulfillment. I am extremely lucky that my parents had the same outlook as yours, and passed on the values of saving and the reward that comes with buying something for yourself outright after working hard for it.
I have mentioned to some close friends and family (I don’t want to say it too loud for fear of inciting blind rage in people with credit debts and plasma tvs) that the current recession is a good thing for our generation – it may snap some people out of their sense of entitlement and make them realise the value in being debt free and a little bit thrifty. -
Everything you said is so true! My mum was a social worker and sadly often dealt with people who referred to the benefit as their ‘pay’ and had flasher gear than we did, and my parents have worked their bums off since the day they left school, and earned everything they got.
I’m glad I’m not the only one driven crazy by those ads, they target people with so little financial literacy and persuade them they ‘need’ a whole bunch of junk. Plus I believe when you work hard to get things with your own money, you enjoy them so much more!
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I love it! In my job (a nurse) The wards are full of self obsessed patients, who are so often so involved in their own mini crisis (” I asked for APPLE juice, not ORANGE”), that they fail to notice that you are A: only one person with one pair of hands and B: That the person in the next bed is racked with pain and I feel they are more important then your DAMN juice! (true story). I also get sick to death of patients who are chain smokers, with lung problems, who constantly complain they can’t breathe, yet when asked why they are still smoking say “you’ve got to die of something”. It all gives me an ulcer.
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I totally feel you on this…I’m located in the States and basically grew up in my town’s version of the ghetto, where I’ve had to work hard for everything I have, which isn’t always the top line or whatever and sometimes I have to scrap by until the next payday…
Yet all around me I see people with newer cars, flashier clothes, and the newest cell phone…and it angers me because when I’m at work (I’m a bank teller, btw), I see these same people every month, first of the month, to cash their welfare or social security/disability pay…it makes me sick just to see them with all that, plus with food stamps and medical cards while I’m trying to support my husband and me and am barely making it by…
And to top it off, I always hear people complain that they never have enough money or that their food stamp card never has enough on it to pay for their food (which are usually high priced items, such as steak…not the basics they should be buying)…infact, I know several people who always seem to call up my mom, asking to borrow a few bucks here and there when it has been proven they get well over $1000 a month in benefits and they can’t live off that?
No wonder we, as a world, are in the dire straights we are in…thank goodness my mom instilled it in me to work and save (though it is hard with only one income), but eventually, I’ll make it through…
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Well said lady, well said. I really enjoyed reading this post. You are lucky because you were raised to be an aware, independent person but also because you are smart enough to be grateful for that, and for all the things you already have.
Happiness is in the simple things in life. -
Hmmm…one MIGHT need a computer these days. I’m trying to imagine applying for a job/job hunting without one. Imagine if you couldn’t print out your resume. I guess you can go to the public library or somewhere like that, but that would be dicey. I’m not sure how much time they let you spend on a borrowed computer. But I’m with you on everything else!
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Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
Love the Daddy Smaggle wisdom!
I hate the sense of entitlement that seems to pervade our society. GGRRR.
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Oh WOW! I think our work is done!
Mamma and Daddy Smaggle are very proud of you too xx -
Here, here …. it seems we’re living in the golden age of entitlement y’know – where everyone knows their rights (without responsibilities naturally), and must have their big tellies, big cars, big designer versions of the most ordinary things (tshirts, denim, sneakers) or a massive bout of spoon-banging will result. It scares me that these folks are bringing up a new generation of brats with even more fecked-up values – low point being my friend having to ask for the music to be turned down next door – every Fri-Sun at 2-3am – so her terminally ill mother (who she was caring for) could get some sleep. How inconvenient.
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Here here. I feel extremely lucky, but I also think I worked pretty hard to get what I want – and I actually subscribe to the idea that work is its own reward. plus – on the issue of plasmas – books are just so much more interesting than TV. so there. 😉
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When I was going overseas last year, I had a few people tell me to get a credit card and worry about paying for it when I got home! How ridiculous is that — if I can’t afford to pay for a holiday before I go, how can I afford to pay for it + interest when I get back!
I think it’s a good feeling to go without and work to afford the things you want.
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hey ms smaggle,
True dinks that the current perspective o’ debt being a normal and acceptable state is unsettling and calls into question issues of corporate & government responsibility..
On the topic of work ethic however I do think a distinction should be made regarding those who study to avoid the workforce and thise that make a conscious choice to forego work-a-day riches and engage full time in academic life… three degrees is not funded by Austudy and I have worked through both o’ my degrees. About to embark on a third, it is for the love of the (for want of a less wanky term) ‘realm of ideas’ that I continue to eek out a living transporting lattes at 29 in order to be academically well-regarded enough to contribute to the social and political conversation… le sigh.
As for plasmas & the like… who needs em? no-one. Access to computers however is arguably essential… a form of social capital if you will…
Love the rants lady… keep it up… xx bon
