Whatever happened to the days when...

What ever happened to the days when occupations had a reputable name to them?

here are some of the connotations I now think of (not that I am saying that I believe this, but apparently somewhere in my memory these associations have been implanted):

Businessman: bent on screwing you out of money

Politician: bent on screwing the population out of rights

Milkman: bent on screwing your wife

there are many other reputable occupations I could name, but the milkman is a good example. Granted, there are no milkmen anymore, from what I could tell it was a decent job that held respect among the community. Because of the decline in demand for fresh delivered dairy products, the occupation is just about extinct. A remnant from this extinction is the joke that a fathers children aren't really his, but are actually the milkman's. I will not investigate how this joke came to be, but just because of rumors like that the milkman's purity is now forever tainted.

Lets move on to the politicians. I did not know them, but the founding fathers (in my mental image) were politicians to look up to; they fought for what's right. And somehow the concept of a politician has been drug through the mud. Now, I know a few politicians who are probably rightfully called pigs or snakes, but really this is a small handful. I have met other politicians who have been wonderful and upstanding in all they do. So how did politicians get such a bad rap? because a handful of politicians were crooked, and people over generalize.

Lets move on to businessmen. This is probably the one that irks me the most. Think GM, World Bank, Enron, Bernie Madoff and others. What is the general opinion of these companies? very poorly run, or a company that survives off of cheating. Organizations and individuals have made the name businessman a little tainted. I even have an experience where a electronics repair person tried to fix an LCD monitor I had.

On his window was a Better Business Bureau member sticker, and his place looked a lot like the repair shop I used to work for. I paid $60, and got my monitor back in 2 weeks. The problem was not fixed at all. I'm gracious and thought "maybe the guy didn't catch it all". so I brought it back to him and he said he would fix it at no extra charge. About 2 months later, I actually stopped by his place, because he hadn't called me. he said it would be ready the next day. I showed up the next day, picked up my monitor, and when I brought it home to plug it in it was still exhibiting the same symptoms as before. Granted, I probably should have tried to get my money back, but I didn't want to bother. So, based on this experience a couple of false conclusions can easily be made. 1) Electronic repairmen cannot be trusted to fix anything, 2) If Better Business Bureau is advertised then the establishment cannot be trusted (shouldn't a business rely on it's own rapport to maintain credibility?) and 3) Businessmen in general are only concerned about how much money they can make.

So, why am I ranting about this? Well frankly I don't like that everyones credibility has gone out the window because someone else in their respective field has ruined their name. I don't like being told that I can't trust companies because they are "Greedy," I don't like being told not to trust politicians because they are "Crooked," and as for the milkman, well I don't know any milkmen so I really can't say much on that.

I guess what I am really ranting about is the stupid overgeneralizations that people make about, well just about anything. I trust most companies to be good and frugal (otherwise how would they be in business?), I trust that most politicians honor their word (otherwise how would anyone get re-elected or even have a rapport to get elected in the first place), I trust that most milkmen were honest people (again, not that I know any).

anyways, thats my rant and I'm sticking to it.