Wow! You struck a chord for quite a few people today. 'Get the best job you can and pay your bills. Despite what some people think, there is no job that is “beneath” you.' And 'Not only does the world not owe you a living, but the people who do work and pay taxes don’t owe you a living either.' Great post, John.
I am a baby boomer and grew up when the expectation was no honest job was beneath a person. My grandfather lived during the depression. His father took his own life on Black Friday because he lost everything playing the stock market trying to get rich quick. At 11, he dropped of school to work. He took his father's old Model T that was not working, fixed it, and used it to get jobs hauling anything he could. For a while he was paid by a city to haul away old asphalt and concrete as part of a public works project that involved fixing roads and building new ones.
When he was 16, he got a job as a chauffeur. He was on call 24/7. He had a place to live and 3 meals a day. His pay was $10 a month to cover whatever else he needed. When he lost a job, he had another one within 24 hours. There were jobs available but too many people refused to take them because they were too good for the jobs available.
I got my first job at the age of 9, a paper route. Since then I have always had a job. I worked while attending college because my single mother could not pay for it.
I earned my Ph.D in biology and did research. Then the funding for research dried up in the field I was trained for. So I took a job as a high school biology teacher and earned my credential while teaching. I have had to put up with a lot of garbage. I do not always like my job, but I am good at it and it provided for my family for over 20 years and helped put my son through college. It met my needs when I went into teaching, it provided an income for my family. I am soon to retire but I will take another job because I have to keep busy. It will be a job that pays less than I earn now but it will provide extra income to supplement my retirement and be something without all the responsibilities. I just want to show up to work, work my hours and go home at the end of the day without taking the job home. I could flip burgers, I did this while I was earning my Master's. I might take a job as a janitor because I can do my job without too many people around. Uninterupted, and can do more and faster because I spend my time working, not socializing.
"It's important to make this distinction on the argument. Yeah who wouldn't like $70-100k+ a year Would you rather sit in an office doing engineering work for it or slinging rice and beans slop in a tray? The rich/poor divide isn't just about money."
As you say, only a few people can have the "cool kid" jobs. But more explicitly:
SOMEBODY has to do the non-cool jobs. Someone has to. "Anyone but me"? What makes you better than whoever it is you think should get it? My goodness.
"Someone has to do them but nobody should have to." It's incoherent.
The reality is that most of us are doing or have done the non-cool jobs because most jobs aren't cool and fun by their nature. For every actor in front of the camera, there's a zillion people in uncool jobs behind them making it happen. For Lebron James to play basketball, a zillion people had to build the stadium, work concessions, police the venue, etc, etc. This is just how life is and how it always has been.
This is a big divide between Christians and non-believers, too. Jesus said if you don't work, you don't eat. Paul wrote that all the disciples had to work, too. God did not set up a kingdom where you lounge in a hammock and angels will drop food into your mouth when you're hungry. I never expected other people to feed me so long as I was able bodied, and I always paid my way. Entitlement is an ugly side effect of the "nanny state," and that CA tech guru talking about his "universal basic income" is part of the problem also. I worked for a county that gives food and shelter to everyone who just comes in for a monthly meeting, but my experience was that some people simply choose to be jobless, homeless, and yes, drug seeking, and some will never change.
Wow! You struck a chord for quite a few people today. 'Get the best job you can and pay your bills. Despite what some people think, there is no job that is “beneath” you.' And 'Not only does the world not owe you a living, but the people who do work and pay taxes don’t owe you a living either.' Great post, John.
I am a baby boomer and grew up when the expectation was no honest job was beneath a person. My grandfather lived during the depression. His father took his own life on Black Friday because he lost everything playing the stock market trying to get rich quick. At 11, he dropped of school to work. He took his father's old Model T that was not working, fixed it, and used it to get jobs hauling anything he could. For a while he was paid by a city to haul away old asphalt and concrete as part of a public works project that involved fixing roads and building new ones.
When he was 16, he got a job as a chauffeur. He was on call 24/7. He had a place to live and 3 meals a day. His pay was $10 a month to cover whatever else he needed. When he lost a job, he had another one within 24 hours. There were jobs available but too many people refused to take them because they were too good for the jobs available.
I got my first job at the age of 9, a paper route. Since then I have always had a job. I worked while attending college because my single mother could not pay for it.
I earned my Ph.D in biology and did research. Then the funding for research dried up in the field I was trained for. So I took a job as a high school biology teacher and earned my credential while teaching. I have had to put up with a lot of garbage. I do not always like my job, but I am good at it and it provided for my family for over 20 years and helped put my son through college. It met my needs when I went into teaching, it provided an income for my family. I am soon to retire but I will take another job because I have to keep busy. It will be a job that pays less than I earn now but it will provide extra income to supplement my retirement and be something without all the responsibilities. I just want to show up to work, work my hours and go home at the end of the day without taking the job home. I could flip burgers, I did this while I was earning my Master's. I might take a job as a janitor because I can do my job without too many people around. Uninterupted, and can do more and faster because I spend my time working, not socializing.
All true. But also, regarding the last guy:
"It's important to make this distinction on the argument. Yeah who wouldn't like $70-100k+ a year Would you rather sit in an office doing engineering work for it or slinging rice and beans slop in a tray? The rich/poor divide isn't just about money."
As you say, only a few people can have the "cool kid" jobs. But more explicitly:
SOMEBODY has to do the non-cool jobs. Someone has to. "Anyone but me"? What makes you better than whoever it is you think should get it? My goodness.
"Someone has to do them but nobody should have to." It's incoherent.
The reality is that most of us are doing or have done the non-cool jobs because most jobs aren't cool and fun by their nature. For every actor in front of the camera, there's a zillion people in uncool jobs behind them making it happen. For Lebron James to play basketball, a zillion people had to build the stadium, work concessions, police the venue, etc, etc. This is just how life is and how it always has been.
This is a big divide between Christians and non-believers, too. Jesus said if you don't work, you don't eat. Paul wrote that all the disciples had to work, too. God did not set up a kingdom where you lounge in a hammock and angels will drop food into your mouth when you're hungry. I never expected other people to feed me so long as I was able bodied, and I always paid my way. Entitlement is an ugly side effect of the "nanny state," and that CA tech guru talking about his "universal basic income" is part of the problem also. I worked for a county that gives food and shelter to everyone who just comes in for a monthly meeting, but my experience was that some people simply choose to be jobless, homeless, and yes, drug seeking, and some will never change.