So if I'm a fisherman who can catch 10 fish and that can feed 3 people.
Then the other 2 people should chop wood or do something else.
If someone else can catch 20 fish then I should go and do something else.
Ok this is over simplifying this but I think you should get the picture.
So economics works like this. Everyone should specialize so that they can produce more stuff and services for other people to consume. So I can sell my excess fish or trade it for firewood. So if I want to work, I should always work by fishing cos it contributes the most to the overall economy. Cos by specializing, I can fish more than others.
For those who play games, you should be familiar with this concept. To earn more money fast, you should specialize in one skill. And after earning enough, then maybe you may level up your other skills.
Then I put it to life in general, and I think, have many people become stupidly specialized?
Like... everything also outsource.
Many of us, myself included...
We go to work, come home, many folk buy food for their meals, hire a helper to take care of their kids, when their car is spoilt, they go to a mechanic, have pipe/toilet issues or electrical issues, they call a handyman, etc etc.
There are a whole bunch of people who don't know how to cook sufficiently well (my wife)...
I can't repair my own car, although I would learn how to so that I don't get chopped by the ah-beng workshop.
I can do pipe and electrical works for my own house, drilling holes, installing cabinets, etc.
I can sew and mend my clothes pretty well. My wife can't sew, she will just typically buy a new one or ask me to fix it, else she will throw it.
There's a lot of stuff I would like to learn how to do.
But yet many people don't want to or cannot be bothered to learn. And that's actually pretty normal.
The idea that a financial adviser/planner is giving you good advice is totally shady. But yet many people do not read sufficiently to learn about financial planning. Many financial advisers are just well versed with the product. They aren't taught financial concepts. They are taught to sell, not taught to educate and help you plan.
I think that eating out is relatively harmless. But yet, I personally also think that there is a conflict of interest, albeit much lower. The hawker downstairs... he wants to make more profits. So it's in his interest to make his food more tasty. There's a high chance he's adding MSG, using lard, more oil. There's a high chance he's not washing his vegetables or other ingredients well. He may be using cheaper and not as fresh products. And many of us know this and we just close both eyes.
Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with eating out. Rather, I believe, everyone should learn how to cook and be able to prepare healthy food for themselves. Yes yes... everyone's too busy... so that's the point of my post. We're all so busy that we aren't willing to or cannot find the time to learn how to cook or to find the time to prepare our own food even IF we know how to cook.
Same for many other stuff in life.
When I go to the hardware shop and ask for parts or lights or whatever, the owner, usually he's also the handyman who goes down if you ask him for help, he is shocked when he knows that I'm fixing my own stuff. And he comments that young folk don't usually want to or know how to do their own repairs.
I'm not blowing my own horn. I myself have stuff I don't know how to do. These stuff are just the stuff that come to mind cos I see it on a regular basis.
The thing I'm just trying to highlight is that economy is built on specialization. And many people are paid to just do their own work. In a perfect world, that's fine. But the world is not perfect with lots of conflicts of interest. And when people specialize in their own skills and outsource almost everything to someone else, they have to accept all these conflicts of interest.
Personally, I like control over things. So I like to learn and try to mitigate these conflicts of interests. I'm still trying to find out a good way to learn to repair my car so that I don't get chopped all the time.
And the thing is. I think life IS about learning about all these. To be able to do many things and learn new skills and as many skills as possible. I personally think... It's not about, "Oh I make $50 an hour doing XYZ. So I should continue doing it, if I fix my own lights, I will spend 2 hours, means I lose $100 worth of income, I could just pay someone $50 to do it and work to recoup the losses."
And personally, I think that mentality is just sad.
I do think of a lot of conflicts of interests which I don't really like thus, I tend to want to learn these skills, not that I am able to learn all of them...
Cooking - As mentioned above, I think cooks have the inclination to make their food tasty at all costs. It doesn't matter if it's healthy, if no one is going to eat it, the shop will close.
Car repairs/maintenance - Workshops are known to charge an arm and a leg and sometimes the other arm as well. They know we don't know how to fix the car and they capitalize on it.
Doctors - Doctors are concerned if they get sued, so they might suggest other treatments which might not make a lot of sense, but better to be kiasu. Also, they want to make profits, so they might suggest surgery or other more expensive treatments which may or may not be really necessary.
Financial advisers - Do I really need to explain this part?
Handyman - Many of them don't care how they drill the holes. Many times, they might use too much force or are "bochup", and crack or break other things. Happened to me too many times, which is why I learnt how to do my own repairs.
Guitar lessons - I know someone who self studied online and learnt how to play it. Similarly, teachers for many topics are selling their skill and also the convenience that someone is always at hand to teach the students. The knowledge these days is freely available.
I mean, there's lots of things to learn. Some stuff we can do it ourselves if we learn. Other stuff is simply impossible. Like learning how to build a plane. But I do think that as people specialize in their respective roles, some folks might tend to just simply ignore the other stuff which they could learn or they don't want to learn cos it's a "waste of time" cos it can be outsourced.
It's very much like shifting the blame. Cos I'm not specialized in it, I don't learn it. So I hire someone else. If that person screws up, I can sue him.
But then shifting of responsibilities and blame has also come to some serious implications and results. Like how SMRT put barriers to their open air stations... I think that's lame. Yes it's a good safety device. But is it really necessary? Have we stopped having the sense to NOT stand near the tracks? Furthermore, are we ridiculous enough to blame SMRT for NOT installing these barriers when someone falls on the track?
Or when someone eats something which smells bad, but the expiry date has not passed yet. Is that logical? Have we lost any form of common sense?
Oh but I forget...
Common sense isn't very common... (so said by Warren Buffet)
So yes, I do think that this specialization and shifting of responsibilities have gotten somewhat out of hand. I think generally, people should take more control of their own lives, and be responsible for their own actions and learn many different skills so that they will not be at the mercy of other people or "experts".
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