Out Of Control

There are numerous minor tasks in life that need to be preformed and choices that need to be made that the general public is not handling well or not handling at all.

According to the Washington Post, healthy food choices are available to all, even those in the inner cities, and we each have control over our bodies as to how much and what we put into them, yet two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese.

Most people have fairly simple incomes yet are willing to pay to have someone else prepare their tax returns. Step by step instructions provided by the IRS are just too much of a bother apparently.

Banks are adapting monthly charges for debit cards and over 95% of the people are content to merely grumble. (NY Times) The task of moving scheduled payments to a credit card or checking account is just too bothersome.

Reconcile a checking account? That takes a grammar school education in arithmetic. No can do.

A large percentage of the population never mastered the ability to set their clocks in their VCRs. Manuals remain unread.

Few do basic maintenance on their personal computers never having looked on the web or novice computer magazines for help. Ever heard of Google?

Are we to conclude that Americans, now that they are fat, are both fat and stupid? It would seem so.

I’ll offer a different opinion. It is self discipline that is lacking. Take the easy way out often enough and you will be out of control of your life. That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of external pressures on us all today but, even so, part of it is still of our own making.

Some illnesses can be attributed to unnecessary strains that we put o n ourselves. Some accidents can be attributed to unnecessary risk taking. Some house and car repairs can be attributed to inadequate maintenance. Some of it is our own fault.

In short, people are in charge of themselves but dereliction of duty is rampant. People need to grow up and take responsibility for their lives.