Why Work Hard?

Matt Smith writes: “WHY WORK HARD?”

“I received the first paycheck after my salary increase. My performance review had an overall score of ‘Exceeds Standards’ and my raise was one of the highest at my airport. Once Uncle Sugar is done doing his damage, my raise nets me an extra ELEVEN CENTS per pay period. Well thank you very little.

“ELEVEN CENTS! Can you believe it? I wish I were joking. Truth is indeed stranger–or should I say more aggravating–than fiction. It makes me wonder why anyone would strive for a merit increase. Why would I stay after work, do duties beyond the scope of my job, do my duties conscientiously, etc., if all I will receive is a stinking 11 cents per fortnight raise?

“This country is getting plain old stupid. I got paid more teaching English as a Second Language for 20 hours a week overseas and I didn’t have to pay taxes. When I see paychecks like the one I just got, it makes me wonder why I ever left. I ostensibly left to improve my career opportunities. Thank God I am only doing this job until I finish graduate school. And yet something tells me that little will change; only the scale of the figures.

“This lesson in the government helping itself to my hard-earned money reminds me why I have become a fan of LRC and of Austrian Economics.”

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1:57 pm on September 2, 2003