You Don’t Get To Define The Value of Your Work
16th November 2011
Sorry if this comes as a surprise, as I’m sure it will to Some. (One of the most amazing things about ‘progressives’ is their ability to ignore basic economics when it suits them. Then they act so surprised when those Unintended Consequences bites them square on the butt. Unfortunately, the rest of us get our butts bitten as well.)
I am reminded of Michelle Obama’s plea to graduating college students to not go work in for-profit businesses, but to work for government or NGO’s. The problem is that workers, particularly young workers, don’t get to define what is productive labor and what is not. You can’t go out in the world expecting to work really really hard at puppeteering or for the cause of Mayan feminism and necessarily expect to get paid a lot. In any job, how much you make is determined by how valuable others see that work.
Well, you can understand her point. When her husband became a Senator, the University of Chicago Hospitals created a position especially for her that paid about twice what her husband was making — and when she left with him for Washington, they abolished the position. She’s living proof that companies exist just to provide well-paying positions for excellent and deserving people such as herself. Live the dream.