RECENTLY, I READ "The United States of Incompetence," by Art Carey, an intriguing book about what the author, a Philadelphia journalist, calls a "larger malaise."
He claims that we as Americans "have lost our purpose, our moral ambition, our sense of social obligation." He says "incompetence is the failure to do what you ought to do, either because you can't or because you won't."There are two kinds of incompetents - "those who don't do what they should because they don't have the skill or training, and those who don't do what they should because they're lazy, sloppy and careless . . .
Try to remember the services you have paid for recently, then consider those who have failed to do quality work.
You will probably come up with a surprisingly high number.
I've been thinking more about this lately, because we have just lived through a "reconstruction" process in our home to correct some flood damage. We have encountered an army of repair people, painters, carpenters, floor layers, carpet-cleaners, etc.
Unfortunately, much of their work was disappointing.
We had to find a tile company to replace a badly installed vinyl floor; we had to find a skilled carpenter to rip off the badly done base boards and redo them; we had to have the painting redone - and the process seemed to take forever.
Getting bids on the work was another problem.
People would agree to come to the house and give an estimate - and then not show. Follow-up phone calls did not help.
Others came and took measurements and made notes - but never produced an estimate.
Some friends have told me it is because we're in a building boom in Utah, and many builders and artisans have more work than they need.
That explanation may partially suffice, but it doesn't get to the heart of the question of dependability and competence.
Carey asked, "Are there any finish carpenters left in America? For all the miraculous tools at their disposal, today's carpenters either don't have the skill to use them properly or . . . or they're too hurried and slipshod to turn out work that even remotely resembles craftsmanship."
The question extends to a great many other things.
Frequently, we need a repair person to attend to an appliance. Without exception, he diagnoses the problem, then announces he will have to return another day because he lacks the necessary part.
We paid $84 to repair our swamp cooler, but it still didn't work. I had some photos developed, and the pictures were covered with white blotches.
Then there are the appliances we buy that don't work when we get them home - or the wood for the fireplace that turns out to be second-rate stuff that falls apart when we pick it up.
I just changed dry cleaners, partly because the one I was patronizing kept destroying my buttons and replacing them nowhere near the button hole with buttons of a different color - and thread that was white no matter what the color of the buttons.
But the clincher was the super-stick name labels they put in my shirts.
The labels, attached inside the collar, peeled off with only the greatest difficulty. The last one ripped the collar and ruined one of my better shirts.
Are there so few people around today who take pride in their work?
As Carey says, "quality is difficult to define, easy to recognize; we know it when we see it."
We just need to see it more often.