what if we did...

I was (still) ranting about the TTC (and other big government organizations) to some of my coworkers, and one guy had an interesting take on the whole situation.  The TTC (for example) he says, is indeed very inefficient, and a lot of people who work there who for whatever reason, have not kept up with the times (ie, maybe all they know is standing at a corner logging the times of when streetcars drives past?) and are most likely, not employable anywhere else, or at least, not employable at a the same wage they were earning at the TTC.  Because of these inefficiencies, they have to constantly raise transit fares.  However, try looking at the TTC not as a company that's suppose to perform well, but as a social welfare program, to basically employ all those people who would otherwise be left behind in this world of computers and high tech.

The same alternative view point can be used on any large government organization or even the government itself.

Something else to think about, I think we can all agree that in any organization, especially large ones, there are a lot of people who day in and day out, pretend to do work, but don't actually do work (or have extremely low productivity)  What if all these non-productive people just stayed home?  They will still get paid some nominal amount, maybe they will get bored with all the free time and want to rejoin the productive segment of society, but until then, they stay home.  This way, they don't clog the roads, highways and public transports.  And since they productive anyway, not much is lost, but imagine how much less traffic congestion our highways would have!

I mean, haven't you thought on your daily transit to work, how many people around you, whether on the highway or on public transit, or even walking down the street, are actually productive? or making something that has some intrinsic value? or helping someone? or doing some real good for society?  How many people just go to work as part of a routine, and don't really give a damn whether they accomplish anything? or do anything having value to society?

It may not even be a permanent or even long term thing, maybe some people were productive, but then worked too hard and got burnt out, what they really do need is a lot of time off to recharge, but they can't because they need to have a job to pay the bills.  So they drag their ass through all the traffic and transit to work, only to be unhappy and bored and non-productive. At the end of the day, their time has been wasted, fuel spent on getting to and from work, and not much has been accomplished, and they are exhausted from the whole experience. This eventually forms a downward spiral, where the hole just gets deeper and deeper, and they just can't dig themselves out of the rut of non-productivity. Their unhappiness touches to their family, friends, and any people they encounter in their miserable lifestyle. All this for what? a paycheck to pay off the debt? A debt from a house/car and then useless consumer goods for temporary happiness?

If I were in charge, I'd give everyone 3 months off ever year.  So everyone would have time for a hobby, time and energy to learn a new skill, time to exercise, walk their dog, be with their kids, go camping, look up at the stars at night...

I really don't think overall productivity would drop too much, but people would be a heck of a lot happier.

first rant, the TTC

Why does the TTC take so long to fix anything?

I remember the staircase at St Andrew station was out of commission for a good 8 months or so. Entire sky scrapers have been built in less time. And in that time, I think the work was done pretty quickly, but the entire area was fenced off anyway. Why? The only reason I can come up with is, they don't give a sh*t.

I also recall someone telling me that every job at the TTC has a expected time duration, and if you finished too quickly, well, you just go back and take some more time at it. Remember how long it took them to finally get those overhead TVs to work in the subway stations?

Also, why do they need multiple TTC personnel (supervisors??) standing at street car stops? They've got their binders of papers, and small what appear to be log books. Why are they there? Are they logging the times the street cars go by? Don't they know the street cars all have GPS tracking now? And then why are there two of them per stop? They need one to monitor the other? Or so they don't get lonely?

You want to the TTC to stop having fare hikes, start looking at how they operate.