Burglars

Last week my wife walked in on a burglarly in progress in our home. Fortunately, there was no confrontation and the burglar left through the front door. He must have been in the house for only a few moments before my wife arrived, as nothing was disturbed, rifled, or taken. The only damage was 1 broken window.

Such events provoke several thoughts. One is intense anger that someone would be so brazen as to enter our home. He has no idea what might await him, or happen to him. He takes a huge risk in breaking into a home. But I doubt he has given that much thought--he wants something and he's going to go get it.

And that leads to my second thought. Burglars are simply taking the easy way out. Rather than learn a productive skill, they survive by victimizing others. Rather than trade value for value, they simply seize the values that they desire.

In some ways, this mentality is shared by a lot of painting contractors. I hasten to add that I am not calling any contractor a crook. But many contractors do not regard a paint job as an exchange of values. They view is as a confrontational activity between the client and the contractor, in which each tries to get something over on the other.

As an example, many contractors argue that customers always hire on price. They see no other value involved in the transaction. So they offer the most basic value they can--putting paint on the wall. They don't accept credit cards, have insurance, do color consultations, or offer any other value that customers will pay for. They simply put paint on the wall, and then complain that customers won't pay for quality.

I would argue that such an attitude is a form of theft. A contractor who believes such things is robbing himself and his family. By depriving his customers of the additional values that he could offer, he prevents himself from commanding a better price. And while his intentions may be better than the punk who broke into my house, I'd still like to slap some sense into him. What I'd like to do to that punk is a different matter.

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