Mercantile Filth
Does freedom exist? Yes, it can be bought: people who have money are free. They can afford to do what they want when they want — and that is freedom, which, we are often told, is happiness.
This is from Service, a brand new novel set in LA’s Echo Park district by John Tottenham. Big thanks to the New Escapologist reader who recommended it.
Tottenham’s embittered protagonist struggles daily with his bookstore job, a mountain of debt, gentrification, and his failure to find a state of mind condustive to writing. It’s brilliant. It’s Black Books but furious. Blacker Books then.
It contains many an exquisite Workplace Woe from the service industry:
There are seven or eight steps involved in a credit card transaction, and the entire procedure, from the moment of it being handed over to the printing of the receipt, takes approximately thirty seconds — often longer, if as is so often the case, the machine is malfunctioning. I handle roughly two hundred of these transactions a week, which amounts to at least an hour and a half a week — no less than seventy-five hours: three full days; nine full work days a year — spent processing and handling these items of mercantile filth.
And some top-notch bathtub writing too.
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About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk
Jon Stewart talked about this during a dinner with Obama and Bezos. From the linked article below:
“As Stewart tells it, Bezos discussed what he sees as the economy of the future, one that relies on service workers to perform tasks. Stewart said he disagreed, that people want to feel proud of their work, and feel like they’re contributing to society and not just “running errands for people that have more than you,” Stewart said he told Bezos.”
Link to article: https://archive.is/8esvD
This is something I remember feeling as a young adult working in a department store. I served people who had bought lawn mowers, coats, electronics, etc., but I could never afford the things the store sold. This was a Sears, so it’s not like it was an expensive store. I ended up having to steal things like a winter coat and socks from the store I worked at because they didn’t pay me enough to live on. Between that and seeing ads for hotels, cars, and travel experiences, it truly felt like the world was built for the enjoyment of the rich; we’re just here to keep the lights on and serve the hor d’oveures.
2 more examples: Zuckerberg bypassed helicopter rules at a Nordic mountain by flying the heli from his yacht, and the Kardashians went to Disney World and had rides completely closed off to everyone else, enjoying the rides while the commoners watched from the sidelines.
But you mustn’t envy them. I often think the lifestyle of the super-rich is a crime but also a punishment. I mean, who wants to go to Disney alone? So sad. They are the losers.
“Running errands for people who have more than you” though. Oof. He’s not wrong to put it that way at all. What a world.