Comments on: How Ken the mechanic will save our nation

By: Rob, NY

Rob, NY — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:25:35 +0000

A good mechanic – highly rated like that is hard to find. I found similar ratings on http://www.motortipster.com it’s a not for profit website. For the good of the people. NYC area only at this point)

By: Mike, Spokane, WA

Mike, Spokane, WA — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:16:42 +0000

Well, SE of NY, it appears that we have been grabbed by the scruff of our raggamuffin necks by the playground monitor, Headmaster Bing. I, for one, sincerely offer with my grubby schoolboy paw, the olive branch of peace.

By: TJ Knowles San Diego, CA

TJ Knowles San Diego, CA — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:14:34 +0000

I didn’t mean to start a food fight.

By: Bing

Bing — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:53:37 +0000

And now, as the sun rises slowly in the west, we bid adieu to the entertaining back-and-forth between Mike and SE of NY. They’ve been up. They’ve been down. They’ve wrestled each other to the ground. And now… it’s over. Thanks, guys. It’s been a powerful, moving saga. Now let’s move on.

By: SE, New York, NY

SE, New York, NY — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:05:31 +0000

Mike, it’s just funny that you’re so certain you know me when you’re dead wrong. I grew up in near poverty in the Midwest for almost my entire childhood. My grandfather was certainly economically worse off than we ever were. But you call me arrogant and the product of generations of entitlement in such a pompous and pontificating manner that it’s amusing. Why make your point using personal attacks when you’re such a strong writer? I’m sorry for whatever happened to you in life that made you so bitter.

Thanks, Bing, for allowing my comments to stay up. I did hope to continue visiting your blog because I do enjoy reading it.

By: Mike, Spokane, WA

Mike, Spokane, WA — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:50:47 +0000

Actually SE of NY, many of the people inhabiting those exalted positions got there not because they’ve proved their mettle via competition, but rather, like our rapidly departing and inept President, acquired access through family connections and advantage. Cream isn’t the only thing that rises to the top (as anybody who has spent any significant time working in a large organization would attest).

Now, I wouldn’t blame anyone for using whatever advantage birth or circumstance life affords them, but I am always amused by successful peers when they assume that their success was due solely to personal effort and merit. Their lack of humility is staggering.

You do, if your statements are any indication, exemplify the attitudes prevalent among many of my old MBA classmates (and fostered by faculty brown-nosing for family endowments), attitudes I am certain had their roots in successive generations raised in an atmosphere reeking with a sense of social and economic entitlement. I’ve done well enough in my life, but I’m not silly enough to believe that it is all due to my superlative efforts, nor do I believe that every misfortune befalling other people is due to their inferiority, inherent unworthiness, or inability to ‘work harder and smarter’.

To some extent, SE of NY, I suspect you are indeed quite worthy, hardworking, and intelligent, but I also suspect that when the axe falls for you (and it falls for all of us at one time or another) you may not be as gracious in taking ownership of that failure as you readily take credit for your current corporate survival. Of course, for supermen, failure is simply unacceptable.

By: Bing

Bing — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:29:53 +0000

Actually, SE of NY, I did post your excellent comment. If there was an earlier one I did not publish, it was a rare exception to my policy. I don’t remember if I did delete one of your comments or not, I’m afraid, but I will tell you that I publish 99% of everything people send in. There are several things you can do to be deleted, however. If you write a very long comment, it has to be somewhat cogent, which I’m sure yours was. It really shouldn’t be too ad hominem, even in jest, although I will allow people to poke at each other a little as long as they have something else to say. And I really can’t publish too much profanity, even with $$s or XXs or @#$@! in it. People know when you call somebody else an a&&h##e or tell them to !#@$ themselves what you’re talking about, and that way lies madness and the anger of the cnn police. We don’t need that. Anyhow, SE of NY, please don’t go away. We love ya.

By: SE, New York, NY

SE, New York, NY — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:13:09 +0000

You allow Mike of Spokane to post an ad hominem attach directed toward me, personally, but you remove my even-handed, well-written rebuttal? If you don’t want my patronage on this blog, I will be happy never to return.

By: SE, New York, NY

SE, New York, NY — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:11:54 +0000

Mike of Spokane, I think you unfairly directed your comment against me, personally. What I said in my comment was that many of the people who TJ refers to as “the brains of the Street” could, if they decided it was to their advantage, quickly and adeptly learn to perform the work of Ken the mechanic. The people who hold positions at the major Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds and private equity shops obtain those positions by spending their entire lives competing against and beating their peers at every step — in grades, service, varsity sports, college entrance exams, interviews, inter-personal skills and likeability, and work ethic. They are people who could achieve whatever they determine is in their best interest to achieve, whether that is repairing automobiles with their bare hands or advising on mergers and acquisitions of companies. What I meant to say was that we shouldn’t be too quick to bemoan the fact that white collar workers on Wall Street can’t repair their own cars. They possess the ability to learn to do so, but they don’t, because it’s not worth their time.

Arrogant? Certainly not. I greatly admire Ken the mechanic — not because he has the specific skills to repair a car, but because of his demonstrated ability and intellect to do that and probably whatever else he puts his mind to.

Sense of superiority? Maybe, because while I agree with you that many people can’t or won’t exercise whatever ability they have in order to become accomplished at anything in life, I know I am not one of those people.

Entitled? I work on Wall Street, but I worked more hours of physical labor in my teens than most 30-year-old adults have probably worked in their lives. I spent every summer of high school and several of college working in blue collar positions with workers who did get endless merriment from working with me: not because of my weakness but because I worked harder and faster than almost any of them on the jobsite. I have always maintained my body in the kind of physical condition that would allow me to do so, which is more than can be said for many construction workers who are “soft” indeed. I don’t feel in any way entitled to my job; I work harder and smarter than my peers who are being laid off every day so that I can keep that job. And when I go home at night, I do pray that the life I have doesn’t evaporate.

By: Leeroy

Leeroy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:04:40 +0000

Well, RASEC from ALICE, TX …

I might have an advanced degree, but I can fix my own plumbing 99% of the time. More importantly, I can find the caps lock key on my computer.

By: Steve, Charleston, WV

Steve, Charleston, WV — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:51:27 +0000

Something here reminds me of Atlas Shrugged. Ken as John Galt, but apparently with a bit more social awareness.

By: Eko, Balikpapan, Indonesia

Eko, Balikpapan, Indonesia — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:44:19 +0000

waking up is not always preferrable, but sometimes it takes real nuts and bolts to slap people in the face to make them awake

By: Christine from Chicabo

Christine from Chicabo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:54:41 +0000

To Mike from Spokane
As someone who spends a great deal of time sitting in meetings, writing emails, conducting powerpoint presentations and wearing effeminate office slippers I wholeheartedly agree with you. I pray that I don’t have to play cowgirl “for real”, I’ll never survive.

By: Margaret, San Diego, CA

Margaret, San Diego, CA — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:03:24 +0000

My husband has a degree in nuclear physics, supports his family as a program manager in very high tech stuff, and he put himself through college as a jaguar mechanic. He’s happiest working with his hands, or his camera, but makes the money with his mind. He calls himself “a generalist”. It’s due to the variety of skills that he has, that he, most likely, will be able to continue working throughout this “downturn.”

By: RASEC, ALICE,TX

RASEC, ALICE,TX — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:06:42 +0000

ITS GO TO SEE THERE IS STILL PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT CAN WIPE THEIR OWN A** . AS FOR THE REST OH WELL. AS LAYOFFS START TO TRICKLE DOWN LETS SEE IF YOUR MASTERS DEGREE GETS YOU BY WITH YOUR OIL CHANGES, PLUMBING PROBLEMS AND OTHER EVERYDAY ISSUES.

SHOULD HAVE HELPED GRANDPA FIX HIS TRUCK AND MIGHT HAVE LEARNED A THING OR TWO.

By: Bing

Bing — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:25:47 +0000

Actually, Isaac, I think the point is not so much that consumer/producer thing, but rather that we sometimes forget that there are a lot of people who actually MAKE things and DO things in this economy of ours, not just juggle money from one pot to another or move information from point A to point B.

By: - Ed, Montreal

- Ed, Montreal — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:13:32 +0000

Ken the mechanic is described as an intelligent fellow so should we really be so quick to dismiss his concern? As the seven lean cows munch down the seven fat cows he probably realizes people will not hurry to repair autos. They’ll take the bus. Or subway.

Be sure to keep your invoices payable upon receipt, Ken.

By: Isaac, Culver City Ca

Isaac, Culver City Ca — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:32:53 +0000

Bing: Do you really think that Ken the mechanic opened our eyes to the fact that we are a nation of consumers and not producers??? c’mon, I hope you are being sarcastic here and not offering this article as a discovery exhibit.

By: David, Los Angeles CA

David, Los Angeles CA — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:08:04 +0000

Mike, you should write Hallmark cards…

By: Mike Jackson - Austin, Texas

Mike Jackson - Austin, Texas — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:38:35 +0000

My car is in the transmission shop (again) and they have more work than they can handle. When they told me it would be next week before they could even look at it I almost suggested they hire back the last guy they laid off.