Thursday, June 19, 2003


Ruminations, Irritations. I know we live in a capitalist society. Heck, I live in the financial capital of the world and I see it. But it just really irks me that there is such a dichotomy in the earning power between people who are in the humanitarian fields versus the business sector. Why is it that a teacher who has a master’s degree and devotes his/her time to helping children learn will only earn $32K versus a person who works, say as a consultant with a bachelor’s degree who earn about $50K average to start? The same thing goes for social workers who try to help children versus a computer developer. Likewise, look at your average movie star versus your average public defender.

The major difference is that jobs in the humanitarian/social services aren’t geared to make money versus the jobs I mentioned above where you work to help your company earn more money. Yes I know people in the business sector make more money because there are in the business of making money. However, I think our nation should re-evaluate the distribution of wealth. People complain all the time about the quality of public education and social services. But no one is pushing for people in these humanitarian fields to get pay raises, better pensions, comprehensive health plans and the like. In fact, some people even scoff at other people’s decisions to work in the social sector. I’ve heard the following statements come out of people’s mouths (not necessarily aimed at me, but mostly observations): Why would you want to be a teacher? Don’t you want to do something better? or Why don’t you just work in a corporate law firm? Won’t you make more money? Instead of people commending others for doing something helpful to society, they are regarded as people who make poor career decisions.

Well I guess it’s my fault for not picking something more lucrative. And I shouldn’t even complain. At least I’m in a comfortable position in my life right now. But there are many who aren’t. Heck, I'm jobless myself...and it doesn't help that I'm only interested in 2 places to work at. Both, of course, will pay very little compared to what my peers make.

The hubs told me the salary shouldn't matter so much as long as you are happy with what you are doing. But it sucks to know that I will be making less even though I'm committed to making a difference in society versus some schmucko who gets 100x more because he's a freaking consultant. Bitter words for a bitter person. He is right though. I probably wouldn't be happy being a consultant anyway. I just hope I get the job that I want. At least so I can shut up and stop whining about it. Truth be told, I am very fortunate to have what I have, and this is precisely why I want to work in the humanitarian field.

POSTED BY KAT AT 6/19/2003 04:22:00 PM |



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