Bosses, rentiers and profiteers

I've often taken a swipe at employers. It's true that my employers have never really been angels when it comes to employees, with an annoying tendency to exploit them to the max. Overtime, constant stress, a noxious atmosphere, questionable pay, and so on. This is particularly true of very large companies and multinationals.

There are black sheep, but there are also "old-fashioned" bosses, protective and paternalistic, who could often give management lessons to the young wolves of the new economy. Unfortunately, the Internet generation is all too quick to forget what was done in the past, both the bad and the good. Sooner or later, we're going to have to get back to it, one way or another.

While I have regularly decried certain practices of employers on this blog, for some time now I have also been aware that the independent spirit of (future) rentiers is not so far removed from that of their "executioners".. They share the same values of responsibility, autonomy and the quest for a certain kind of success. Their personalities are even similar in many respects. That's why they sometimes hate each other. It's a bit like a relationship between two very close people - a couple, brothers or sisters - you love and hate each other at the same time. You see your own reflection in the other's eyes.

So, although at times I have a great aversion to employers, on the other hand I have respect for the entrepreneurial spirit of some company directors.

On the other hand, there's one category of people that's really starting to get on my nerves: profiteers. In particular, these are the people who abuse social insurance. They want to live like annuitants, without taking the consequences, i.e. working for many years to be able to save and invest their money. They cross the finish line without even having run the race. They're often the same people who live beyond their means and ask society to assume their irresponsibility. Very often, too, we hear them whining and complaining about employers and the state, when they themselves are doing nothing for society. Worst of all, they still find support from a certain section of our society, such as trade unions, social workers, unscrupulous doctors or simply idealistic leftists.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about people who are genuinely ill or who have been made redundant. I'm talking about people who don't want to work, while receiving an income paid for by those who do. What's worse is that they still manage to complain and ultimately criticize the very people who subsidize their idleness.

In short, if sometimes I'm fed up working for my boss, I can stand working for these profiteers even less. And don't tell me they only represent a tiny part of the system. The more things go on, the more examples of this type I see around me. With immigration and the free movement of people, there are unfortunately more and more of them. The February 9 initiative hasn't changed anything so far...