Accounting is a goddamn mess. There’s lots of mistakes in accounting, finance, banking, etc but we’re supposed to act to outsiders like they never happen. Publicly traded companies (US) get audited every year, but no audit company would give a paying customer a failing grade. New grads are funneled into working for public firms - the 10 or so companies that cater to the world’s audit, tax, and consulting needs. They’re supposed to teach discipline, but in reality they only teach you security theater. You’re worked to the bone until you either burn out or agree to perpetuate the system to keep your job.
And the only reason it continues to work is society’s social contract agreeing that it has to work because we don’t have any other options. All it takes is the rumors that the idea is failing - like in the silicon valley bank run - and we’re all out of luck. With the speed of information these days all it takes is a few minutes for a situation to spiral out of control. It’s bonkers.
I got into accounting because I enjoyed bookkeeping in high school. Now that I’m in it I refuse to work for anything larger than a mid sized, non public company.
So basically, everyone is full of bullshit and lying to keep the system working.
Why am I not surprised?
Social security would be a ponzi scheme if it wasn’t done by the government. System only works because new younger people are “convinced” to put in money to pay the old in hopes that new younger people will pay them in the future.
The social security liability is currently 23 trillion. If no new people started paying in and everyone wanted to cash out, they couldn’t get a dime.
We are 33 trillion dollars in debt. 33 trillion.
If we as a country ever tried to cut spending and save money to pay that down, our economy would collapse so fast.
Social security was designed to be that way, it’s not a secret or anything. It’s how the system was set up and it’s how it is supposed to work. Today’s workers fund today’s retirees.
Bro this is the fucking world! It’s just smoke and mirrors. Like the commercials. Everyone at McDonald’s smiling and happy and loving their job. Then look at reality.
That’s every job, every field. It’s just held together by duct tape and bubble gum.
It’s just held together by duct tape and bubble gum.
🔥 Hot take: Applies to the mainstream tech industry too in my eyes… an abundance of unstable implementations and hacks that can break at a moment’s notice - all prettied up with a fresh coat of paint so it “looks and feels new” to sell a new license each year or give the user a reason to keep paying that subscription. No value added whatsoever.
Fintech, construction (Solidworks, Autodesk), media & design (Adobe CC), Microsoft (Windows, office), the whole lot
This here is the best comment to address the OP question. Just to be clear, I 100% agree: every job, every field is just held together by duct tape and bubble gum.
I work with financial analysts and accountants at work. we swing from “holy shit the sky is falling” to “wow we have more budget in this than we realised” in a few months, meanwhile the guys in the field do the exact same job and the relatively fixed revenue stream keeps coming in
Ehh, so a counterargument is we now have “control audits” aka soc1 type2 audits that test whether management fix their stuff without external eyes. That hasGREATLY increased the fidelity of all public companies. Yeah mistakes happen, but the controls get pretty robust after only a few years.
