[thechat] A balance of opinion. - Iran
deacon b.
web at master.gen.in.us
Thu Mar 27 17:25:33 CST 2003
> But times change. Maybe that ain't true anymore. I'm thinking that
> to make a 'determination' once way or the other for this point, (the
> 'blue collar is better' thing), you'd have to be able to demonstrate
> that the accelerating turbulence of down-sizing, right-sizing,
> outsource-sizing, and fall-down-go-boom-sizing of companies in today's
> economy is at a high enough pace that we actually have a case of the
> blue collar tortoise financially outperforming the white collar
> rabbit:
My point wasn't really blue-collar versus white-collar
- although my brother who is a millwright at GM
makes more money, year after year after year, than
any of his three brothers with technical or
engineering degrees.
My point is you don't get paid for *doing* things, as
much as you get paid for *putting up* with the job,
as perceived.
When I was in high school, I worked at the dime
store, my friend Johnny worked at the bowling alley,
and my best enemy Dave worked at the
supermarket.
Dave was perceived to have the worst job, and the
best pay - $2.25 an hour. He had to carry out
groceries in the snow and rain and blistering sun.
Except that as a matter of practice, he spent most of
his time *sacking* groceries and flirting with the
checkout girls and customers.
I was thought to be inside most of the time, but I had
to tote merchandise up two flights of stairs for
storage, and tote it back down, and I had to clean
the sidewalk and unload trucks in all sorts of
weather. I made $1.25 an hour.
Johnny seemed to have the best job, in the bowling
alley, except that he wasn't out front with the
bowlers, having fun, he was in the back where the
noise was atrocious, and he was filthy black with
grease when he got done work, because he had to
unjam the pinsetting equipment and keep it running.
He got 85c an hour.
Perception is the key factor.
Would you rather be a travel agent or a tax
preparer? If you actually look at what the job
consists of, they each interview clients and fill out
forms using highly complex rules that don't stay
constant.
But travel looks like fun, and taxes look like a pain,
so an established one-man tax prep service will
make more money before May 1 than a similarly
established travel agency will make all year. The
travel agent stays home while the customer travels,
and the tax preparer fills out the return while the
customer pays the tax. But taxes are bad, travel is
good, so tax preparers make out like bandits,
relatively speaking.
Or think about airline stewardesses. Yeah, I know all
the spiel about their safety function, but in practice,
they are just waitresses in the sky. Stews work very
hard, put up with some pretty difficult customers and
tips are terrible. If the stew were to work that hard in
a truck stop, she'd have regular customers who tend
to keep the difficult customers in line, she'd get fairly
decent tips, and she'd save a lot of money on
motels and phone bills since she never leaves
home. But the *perception* is that stewardess is a
glam job, and truck stop waitresses are drudges, so
truck stop waitresses come out *far* ahead
financially.
The key is to find something that other people
*really* want someone else to do for them. If you
think you're going to make money watching kids,
hey, I got news for you, people spend money to
have their own families so that they can watch them.
If you think you can crochet tea cozies and make
decent money, forget it. About the only crafts gig
that is the very profitable is pottery - because the
product is useful as well as decorative, and most
people figure a potting wheel and a kiln are too
expensive (and take up too much space!) to make it
worth the effort; a lifetime supply of coffeecups,
vases, and flowerpots is cheap by comparison.
And who makes money in retail? Pretty much
nobody. That's because profits in retail are pretty
much made in *buying* right, because you can't
consistantly expect customers to pay more for the
same merchandise. How can you possibly buy
better than WalMart does? But you *can* make
money if you deal in something nobody else will
touch. Porn shops can be profitable. And scrap
metal yards can make you downright rich. Why?
Because it's *embarassing* to be thought of as
Larry Flynt or Fred Sanford. But you get paid for
what you put up with, not for what you do.
Which is why this whole "equal pay for equal work"
thing is nonsense. If you have a job that nobody
wants to do, you end up paying more in order to
make the job more attractive. If you have a hundred
people a day applying for a job as receptionist at
minimum wage, and the receptionist says "Pay me
more, or I'll have to quit", you say, "Best wishes;
been nice knowing you." Because you don't pay
what the job is worth. You pay what you *have* to
pay.
And if what you have to pay is more than the job is
worth, then you don't pay *anything*.
We *have* equal pay for equal jobs - because
people vote with their feet. And if your kid develops
cancer and you can't switch jobs because you'd lose
your insurance over "pre-existing conditions", then
you have the makings of a tragedy. But for the most
part, it's a fairly efficient market out there.
My wife is a therapist, handling multiple-disability
kids. She's not just good, she's a miracle worker.
She is taking kids that everyone else has given up
on, and turning their lives around, and in many of
the cases, they will end up being able to support
themselves as a result. She probably is worth a
quarter-million a year to the state in reduced costs
down the road. But she'd make two to three times
as much money managing a fast-food restaurant
(which is actually not very different than teaching
multiple-disability kids how to be functional.)
So why doesn't she go run a Taco Bell? Because
she comes home with the biggest smile on her face,
the days that a client makes a breakthrough.
Sometimes the compensation for a job is something
you can use to pay the mortgage. Sometimes, the
rewards are psychic.
deke
--
RIP Adam Osborne, 1939-2003
And 23 pounds of thanks!
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