This is an article that ‘appeared’ in the
daily ‘Futurology’ in the year 2050. The title of the article was
‘Extinct Profession’. It was to mark the Silver Jubilee of the death of a
dignified (?) profession. It is from a small island called ‘Overlaw’ in an
unknown ocean. The following are some excerpts from the said article:
There has always been a policy in the
business that the big players get some work done by small players by offering them a seemingly lucrative business volume. Small players get
excited, especially if they are new entrants in the business. Their costing is
fully monitored by the big players. After a couple of years of a smooth
relationship, the big start delaying the payments. The poor small ones don’t
mind it initially. The big ones place larger orders with some small advances.
Again, they withhold the payments. They
paint a rosy future before the small players. The poor fellows have no choice.
The small go to a banker and raise funds on
the ‘merit’ that they have orders from large corporates. The bankers oblige.
Their meters of interest and EMI start ticking. But the small ones cannot
function smoothly.
Gradually, the small players see the death
of their own businesses. The big ones are scratch-free. They have a hundred
reasons for not paying – from ‘quality defects’ to ‘belated deliveries’.
And then, the big find some new small ones!
The cycle continues forever… Government makes laws against such tactics but
there is a provision in fine print, in every beneficial law, that the lawmaker
is not responsible for its implementation.
Here is a story where an entire profession
in the country had to be closed down 25 years ago. Had the profession survived,
it would have celebrated its centenary year in the current year 2050.
The profession was basically rendering a
very specialised service to businessmen and many government / private
organisations. Under the law then prevailing, it was mandatory for many
organisations to avail their professional services.
The persons belonging to that profession
were under the impression that the profession was important and indispensable.
But the reality was that had it not been legally incumbent, nobody would have
willingly gone for their services. The payment to those professionals was
always considered as unproductive and was at the bottom of the list of priorities
with the users of their services. It was common that the fees of these
professionals were kept unpaid for up to three or even four years.
But all of a sudden, the ‘Governors’ of the
profession, with a laudable objective to protect the profession, declared that
if your fees are unpaid for two consecutive years by a client, you should
discontinue your services to that client.
The ‘Governors’ said it would be unethical
to render service to that client who owes you so much. There was a big hue and
cry against this decision. But the ‘Governors’ said the client cannot escape
because no other service provider can accept his work unless the previous
person’s fees are paid.
So, the
previous professional lost the work. He could not get any other work since all
the clients had avoided payments to their respective professionals. The
mandatory service could not be rendered by anybody to anybody!
All clients became defaulters under the laws
concerned. They became disqualified to run their business. So, the businesses
were closed.
The government
realised the gravity of the situation, so it brought an amnesty scheme. The
mandatory compliance was waived. Clients found it more economical to pay the
money under amnesty rather than paying fees to the professionals.
The ‘Governors’ of the profession kept on
introducing newer and newer rules and regulations thrust by other countries.
That was done under the garb of ‘Ethics’.
The professionals started spending more time
on learning and more money on books and study courses. Since most of the
clients’ work was discontinued, they had a lot of idle time.
This continued for a few years and in the
year 2025 the government realised that the mandatory compliance was not
required at all. The so-called specialised services rendered by the profession
became redundant. Everybody realised that it had made no difference whatsoever
to anyone even in the absence of those services.
One fine morning, the profession was
declared to be no longer relevant and all the laws were changed accordingly.
That was the end of the profession.
The students as well as the existing
professionals heaved a big sigh of relief that there was no longer any need to
study too many laws and regulations!
