American culture and enterprise are broken. A wreck. The people who broke everything hope to outlast those who still have the energy to resist. Meanwhile, vast numbers of people in this country no longer know which way is up, have no purpose, and only have a vague memory of how life is supposed to work, even as we sink further into economic stagnation.
That’s a big thesis but let’s begin with something small.
A few days ago, I was speaking to the founder and owner of a very successful accountancy firm that has been around for decades and has a reputation for doing great work. We were talking briefly about the state of the country. And I got an earful, the same story I’ve heard from countless business owners and managers over the last several years.
She cannot find competent workers. They might have credentials but they cannot finish tasks. They lack professional scrupulosity, much less real pride in what they do. They slog to the office when convenient and look for every excuse not to be there. They take every last hour of paid time off and use every sick day. She has the feeling that even her employees are trying to pull the wool over her eyes.
This kind of low quality product is very dangerous in this business. There are deadlines. There are consequences for being wrong. Accounting has to be accurate for an enterprise to function and be compliant. She delays as long as possible in terminating employment but after years of experience, she sees the writing on the wall. But there is a problem: these days there are no obvious replacements.
At this point, she is looking forward to retirement. There are no successors to her position.
Every aspect of this small story is repeated millions of times throughout the country. I’ve heard it over and over in every industry. We can’t find workers. The ones we do have don’t know anything. If they do know something, they don’t know how to actualize that knowledge in productivity. If they produce, it is according to their terms, not the needs of the firm.
