It occurred to me today that I have been screwing myself, and possibly others, for years, and I never even knew I was doing it.

I am a computer guy, which means that I’m the guy that people call when their computers/phones/tablets don’t work because they want me to fix the thing.

I even tried to make a business out of it, a few years back. Put together really professional looking invoices and created a Facebook business page (which is probably still out there, now that I think about it). I even put together a rate-scale and made my services reasonably affordable.

And, back when I was starting out –or trying to, at least– word started to get around a little bit. But, it never really took off and I stopped trying, at least partly because it was going to be a drain on my time if things ever were successful, and I wasn’t even sure that I wanted that to happen.

During the venture, and even before it and since, I’ve always refused to charge my family and friends for computer repairs. This, I suppose in hindsight, could have been one of the most significant reasons that I wasn’t ever able to make the business a success. In the end, I was hoping that it would be the case that my family and friends –getting their repairs for free– would then turn around and recommend my services to their family and their friends (word of mouth), resulting in the eventual business I was hoping to get.

It never ended up working out that way.

These days, the business, which never really was a business, consists of me continuing to do the repair work, for free, for my family and friends.

* * *

One lady in particular, who I will refer to as Sarah, to protect her identity, seems to bring me her computer every few months. It shouldn’t be the case that Sarah is able to mess up her computer that often, but she does. She’ll download and install something off of the internet that mucks things up, or she’ll add some software to her browser that makes her browsing ultra-slow. Since Sarah doesn’t really know what she’s doing when it comes to her computer, her ignorance leads her to making these same mistakes over and over again. I suppose I could take the time to try to teach her to avoid doing the things that get her into trouble every time, but I never do.

Instead, every time she does it, she drops it off at my house, and I fix it.

And it occurred to me that there are no consequences for her actions. I realized this the other day as I was finishing the fixes on her computer. There are no negative ramifications for Sarah when she messes up her computer, because she doesn’t have to pay me to fix it.

Maybe, if I started charging her, she’d be a little more careful?

One of the reasons I thought about going into business all of those years ago was because so many people I knew back then were taking their computers to Best Buy to get them repaired and Best Buy was (and still does, from what I understand) charging people an arm and a leg for such repairs. I thought back then that it was reprehensible that they would do such a thing. I told people to avoid Best Buy like the plague, back then, because I used to think of them as unfairly taking advantage of the public.

Maybe I’ve been doing a greater disservice than Best Buy?

If, in a free market society like ours, people assign value based on what they have to pay for something, my service has been of no value to any of the family and friends that I’ve assisted along the way. How sad of a thought is that?!?!

Now, I know this isn’t true because, even though I’ve not charged a good number of people in my life for the assistance that I’ve given them, a good number of that good number of people have paid me back in other ways. I have a cousin whose computers come to me regularly and she’s paid me in gifts or in gifts for my kids. I have coworkers whose own personal computers I’ve fixed, who’ve paid me in books (I love to read). I know that these people value the work that I do for them because they feel this obligation to repay the favor.

But, does Best Buy actually help people by gouging them? One might think so: if that customer, who ends up paying dearly for a computer repair, gets their computer back, and then goes about some different set of behaviors to keep from having to pay so dearly ever again, then Best Buy –through some subliminal free market educational process– teaches people to be more careful.

What have I been teaching Sarah?

Truth be told, I’ve always been opposed to the concept of welfare (as a loyal conservative, I’m supposed to be), but as a Christian, I have always felt that it’s the right thing to do to help people. I think welfare creates an unhealthy dependency, whereas helping people involves coming alongside someone to assist them in what they are doing.

A hand-up vs. a hand-out.

But, as I think about Sarah, and what I’ve been doing with her over the years, I’m not even sure I’ve been helping her –of course, she would say I have been, but I’m no longer sure. I suspect that I’ve been giving her hand-outs and not hand-ups. It’s easy for me to fix her computer each time she “breaks” it –it usually doesn’t cost me more than a few minutes of my time– but I think the real work that needs to be done is a hand-up.

I need to come alongside Sarah and sit down with her and teach her what it is that she’s doing to her computer each time, so she can stop doing it. This would be a significantly greater investment of my time –I would imagine– and the less easy thing for me.

Come to think of it, I would be paying –through the investment of my time with Sarah– to have me fix her computer. Wrap your head around that!

Perhaps, each of the times that I’ve fixed her computer over the years, the sum of all of that time that I’ve spent, starts to become a more substantial investment than the one that I fear I would be making if I sat down with her to teach her how to do things right.

If all of my hand-outs to Sarah haven’t resulted in a change in her behavior, I wonder how often welfare works to assist people in making changes in their life. The cycle of dependency becomes stronger and stronger, and it persists until someone decides to step in and replace the hand-outs with hand-ups. And, while it’s not the easy thing to do when you consider it on its face, it might be, in the longer run, the less expensive option, in terms of time and money spent.

I guess I know what I need to do with Sarah. I’ll cut this off here so I can go schedule some time with her.