Swamp Stomp #149
This week I wanted to do a little diversion from the courts and discuss a phenomenon I have seen in my travels. In an odd sort of way, this speaks a bit about Labor Day.
To begin, I suppose it is only fair to define exiguity. It is one of those SAT words that we seldom see. This is from our friends at the World English Dictionary:
Exiguous — adjective
scanty or slender; meagre: an exiguous income
[from Latin exiguus, from exigere to weigh out; see exigent ]
Exiguity — noun, ex’iguousness— noun, ex’iguously— adverb
What I am talking about is the economics of scarcity, lack, poverty, etc. Scarcity is probably the best match to the concept. However, exiguity has such a nice alliterative match to economics and really does describe the situation.
This summer I have had the chance to do a substantial amount of work related travel. It is one of the benefits and costs of the training business. I am not complaining and am very grateful for the work, but travel does take its toll. As a trained ecologist, I cannot help observing the human interactions in much the same way as I observe some of the wildlife I work with.
I have been in regions of affluence and wealth and I have been in parts of the country hard hit by the economy. I have observed two very different responses to the local conditions and the interactions are quite surprising. So much so that one might conclude that the response is the cause of the condition.
In areas of wealth, there is a local prosperity. Most of this is being driven by the natural gas business. These regions are booming! Sorry, maybe not the best image for natural gas. But you get the point. The local businesses are busy. Lots of new and interesting eateries are open and doing great. Hospitality and retail are very solid. The upshot is that in these regions you have lots of choices, customer service is a priority, and people seem generally happy.
By contrast the regions that are lacking a strong economy are quite the opposite. There are no choices, the food is lousy and don’t even ask about customer service.
For example, I went to a brand new late 1990’s shopping mall. Except for a bank it was completely vacant. Everything was gone. Someone in the world thought it was a good idea to build this mall. It probably cost millions and there it sits empty.
I am sure you have seen this and it is very sad. However, I came across a new type of exiguity that I was not expecting. It came in the form of a haircut. This is how I ended up at the mall.
It is summer and I really needed a haircut. I had an evening with nothing to do, so I ventured out to the nearest chain hair salon. It was around 4 PM when I walked into the store. There was a customer with a stylist and another stylist reading a magazine. I was told to have a seat and after a few minutes informed that the reader was on break and that I could come back at 5:30 PM. No one else was in the place. Not wanting to sit around for an hour and a half, I thought I would go to the mall. Remember the vacant mall? No hair salons or anything else for that matter! So back to the hair salon I went. At 6 PM I as finally seated and she did do an OK job. She complained about how much she was working to her co-worker the whole time. She worked a whole week without a day off. While I was waiting a woman came in to ask if she could bring her kids for a haircut. There was no one but me and the two stylists there. The mom was told to come back at 8:30.
The question I have is the bad attitude and scarcity of the hair salon workers the result of the local economy? Or rather, is it the local economy the result of the bad attitude and exiguity of the worker?
It would seem to me that if you were the only hair salon in town, business would be booming. Are we not taught that capitalism at its apex is the elimination of competition to the point of creating a monopoly. Therefore the hair salon should be at its peak performance. However, from my view of paying two stylists to do one hair cut every 2 hours seems to be a bit below optimal. I am not sure how they even cover the rent at that rate. Perhaps this is not capitalism?
My concern is that in the new economy, we have come to accept poor service, limited choices and bad haircuts. Is this acceptance perpetuating the bad economy? Expecting only the best from ourselves and each other is a fundamental concept we try to teach our kids. The biggest problem with doing our best is that best is never achieved. There is always room for improvement. However, in so trying we better ourselves and our community. Perhaps if we all took on the mantle of doing our best we would be able to elevate out of this economy and finally get a good haircut!
Happy Labor Week and do your best!
– Marc