I spend a lot of time on the road these days (I don’t drive all that far, just typical Southern California traffic means I am on the road for a long time) and I am sadly subjected to numerous gravel/cement/dirt haulers that bounce around and send chunks of rock flying out behind them like some sort of Speed Racer evasion technique. This leaves me dodging and weaving and generally doing whatever I need to do to keep my windshield intact.
While that part greatly irritates me, it isn’t the worst part of the entire interaction. They now have these trucks lettered to read, “Not responsible for broken windshields”. Really? You are too lazy to check your trucks for loose stones, wash off the bits of hardening cement, or put a #$%^$ cover over the bed to hold in all of those glass-seeking projectiles you are hauling across the southland and it isn’t your fault? You have the power to prevent the problem, yet you choose not to, and so by placing some verbiage on the back of the auto glass replacement industry’s best friend, you absolve yourself of guilt or responsibility?
Must be nice….I think I will try that. I am going to become an Uber driver, I will precariously balance a scalding hot cup of coffee above the passenger seat, and put a sign in my car that says, “Not responsible for burns from hot coffee”. I have brakes on my car, but I don’t always feel like using them…maybe I will put a sign on my front bumper that says, “Not responsible for hitting pedestrians” so that I don’t have to stop. It won’t be my fault right? I warned them, didn’t I?
This is very different from someone ignoring a warning sign and then getting hurt. If the sign says, “Beware of dog”, and you enter the property anyway, whatever that dog does to you is your fault. I am thinking of placing a sign on my door that reads, “By unlawfully entering this home, you implicitly waive your right not to have your head caved in with a bat.” Sounds fair to me…I warned them and they ignored the warning.
But, I don’t always have the option not to be behind these trucks…and sometimes, the further back you are the worse it is because the rocks spray like buckshot. So, of course they are responsible for broken windshields. The fact that they believe just the declaration that they are not responsible absolves them of responsibility is extremely arrogant and just another way we have started to accept that nobody is responsible for anything they do…
Which leads me to the next “not my fault” diatribe. I found myself in the car…listening to the radio (and dodging rocks) when the man comes on the air and tells me, “Don’t let the credit card companies trick you into thinking you must pay them everything you owe.” What? TRICK YOU!?!? You borrowed money from them, and you owe it to them. If I loan you $20, I am not tricking you into thinking you need to pay it back. What the hell is wrong with everyone? When did we become this society of no personal responsibility?
“Oh no. Poor me…I wanted things I couldn’t afford so instead of waiting, I got credit cards and bought them all. Now the mean company that loaned me the money to get all my bitchin toys, wants me to actually pay them back and they want to make money also. It isn’t fair!” Look, I get it, we make some bad decisions and we maybe spend something we shouldn’t. That doesn’t give you the freedom to declare you don’t owe it back.
I love the argument that the credit companies like when you don’t pay or it doesn’t hurt because they can write it off and take the loss on their taxes. Right…they are in business to get tax write-offs…you can’t pay salaries with tax write offs…
“I didn’t see on the contract that I was paying 13.99% annual rate and that if I missed a payment it went up to 22%. No one told me these things…and I can’t be held accountable for things no one tells me.” You can…and you should be. It is your responsibility to read a contract before signing. You probably don’t read the contracts that the apps you install on your phone present to you either…and when they sell your personal info, you get mad. You had the opportunity to decline and not use the app…but we don’t read anymore and we expect that someone else (or the government) is watching out for us and making sure that we are always protected.
I would like to see a class in school called Personal Responsibility 101, and make passing it a requirement for graduation…but that won’t happen and 10 years from now I will be sitting on my porch loudly railing against the same things.
Above the Nonsense 