Only The Outline Of A Story
Mostly in these posts, I tell little stories.
I'll start with some prologue, do the middle with not much of a story, and end up, well, we'll see.
I'm getting a bit tired of all the rain here in town. We've had an inch or two in the last couple of days. Like I said, there isn't much of a story, hence the unrelated start. Here's why, I can't give you much detail, to protect the worthy.
Now and again, I mention the names of my friends in posts. You've heard of Big Rick, Big Tony, Bill. But you haven't heard enough that you could identify them without knowing a lot more about me and those around me.
I almost started in again at another point in the story that my mind started "writing." Can't do that.
I have another friend. Saw him or her yesterday, the day before and the day before. The first day before is part of the story. But I can't tell that to again protect.
My friend is a police officer. I saw him or her working on that night. Not as a police officer, strictly speaking. Moonlighting. For the, I think, third shift that week. He or she is moonlighting again as I type this.
He or she has been a cop for now three decades. He or she, to have a somewhat comfortable life, has to work outside of his or her profession about half of the week at a second job being a private cop.
There are lot of stories I could weave here. I'll leave it with, we don't treat the people that take care of us when bad things happen as well as we should.
16 comments:
Jobs don't pay what they are worth. Otherwise, people who put their lives in danger would be paid the most, and entertainers and athletes would be paid the least.
My grandfather was a Atlanta police officer for 25 years, and an investigator for the Public Defender's office for another 15. He and his family (including my mother) lived in a housing project for much of the time when he was a policeman. It was one of the places demolished to make way for the baseball stadium and parking lot. It appears that not much about police salaries has changed since then.
It is sad that this person has to work their ass off just to live comfortably while doing a job that many won't do. I always felt that they were underpaid for what they do. They take a lot of crap from people, and when those same people need help, who do they call? Go figure.
Of course there are a few bad apples in the profession but they are certainly the minority.
As a person in the entertainment industry, I hate to break it to you, but we are one of the most exploited groups there are, often working seven day weeks and getting paid for maybe four days' work tops as employees. We rarely own homes, either.
In certain fields, we invest tens of thousands in training, only to see our jobs farmed out to Third World countries by executives who pocket most of the cash that ought to be in our salaries. We have no job security, and no retirement funds, either.
We also have to put up with a lot more sexual harassment on account of our lowly status because of attitudes like the one I see in your post here. Most people see the entertainment industry as a big joke, and think artists have no entitlement to basic human rights.
That said, I am all for cops and firemen and teachers being properly compensated for their efforts. But I have found at least half of cops and teachers don't have a very good work ethic, and I wish we'd train them better. I think the entertainment industry can do a lot to help prepare youth to have a better work ethic. It's a cultural medium and as valid as any blue collar job.
We all deserve respect for our contributions, if they are valuable to society.
"Worth" is an interesting word.
One could argue that jobs always pay what they're worth ... to someone. Whether the person who agrees to take the job or the person offering the job, somewhere someone has made the decision that a certain job is "worth" X dollars a year. And yet, I don't think I know an employee who doesn't wish he/she were paid more, and an employer who doesn't wish that he/she were paying less.
By the same token, some economic forces have determined that my house is "worth" twice what I paid for it in 1999. Same dirt. Same wood. Same stones. Same siding. I did remove carpet and add central AC. But generally, it is the same pile of materials it started out as in 1926 with a few additions here and there.
Every time I get to feeling underpaid and underappreciated, I realize that I live in a world where I can communicate with anyone, anywhere (just about) from just about anywhere. And the technology to do that costs roughly the same as my water bill. What is that "worth?"
So, yes, it is sad that police officers must work extra jobs to make ends meet. But most people don't want their property taxes to go up either.
I think it's odd to think of a police officer with a second job. (My ex,a correctional officer, also has another job to make ends meet) These are both federal employees...how in the world do they not get paid enough?!
Makes me shake my head. Especially cops. They're the ones that risk it for us each day.
Posolxstvo, This "laisez-faire" mentality you display has resulted in more harm to these economic interests than they care to admit.
I am getting the impression you feel there are no ethics at play in business, and that it's acceptable when "powers that be" play blackjack with the fabric of a nation's economic structure.
I remind you that when people are not properly trained, and, subsequently, not properly compensated, there are broad sweeping consequences to the very fabric of civilization. Diet, rest, and environment all form the structure of this fabric, and when pieces of the structure of it are omitted, it falls apart. Employees who don't rest, or eat properly cannot do their jobs properly, and subsequently, employers are overpaying everybody, because nobody is capable of doing their work as it ought to be done.
Meddling from a government level to try and educate people doesn't accomplish anything but resentment, so it's up to entertainment and media to form the culture which can create the awareness necessary to change the culture of entitlement to one of merit. Whatever this is worth can be easily determined by the rise in productivity that occurs when we have satisfied employees.
Just to clarify, when I mentioned "entertainers and athletes", I was thinking of the people who are paid millions of dollars, not a stage actor who has to wait tables to make ends meet, or a musician who has a day job.
I'm with you on this. I owe my baby boy's life to a fallen police officer. Eighteen years ago this month, a man started shooting at construction workers in a residential area one morning because they "woke him up". Between him and the workers in the crossfire? My baby boy's day care center.
We lost Officer Tommy Collins that day...his last day on the force. He was at his desk when the call came through and he rushed to aid his men.
I can also relate to your last paragraph. We don't treat the Veterans right, either. That's why I'm going into federal law. They come home with injuries and they are pushed aside while VA officers make thousands in bonuses.
It's not right. Thank your friend from the Mom of a veteran and the mom of a young man who, along with his little daycare playmates, was saved eighteen years ago.
Fermicat, if you mean to say that certain people in the entertainment field have attained affluence and not merit, I am with you on that.
But it is important not to generalize, because this forms a cultural intolerance for the artist, who, when deserving of praise, respect and enumeration, performs a critical role in keeping society a place of conscience and reflection.
And we urgently have to look long and hard at these producers and the "stars" they prop up to make us feel insecure, and who set poor examples in the media, so their insecurity driven cash grab can continue at our collective expense.
Anonymous - if you are getting that impression than I have expressed myself poorly. Ethics are of the utmost importance in business. And it dismays me that so many businesses try to get away with unethical behavior, even if it is technically legal.
I have been personally screwed by businesses acting legally and yet unethically. In the case where I was employed by such a firm that wanted me to join in their behavior, I left that company.
I was simply riding a tangent to the west based on the concept of "worth" and what that means.
Sorry to have given the wrong impression.
And I am reminded of a great quote about the business of writing.
"You can get rich at it, but you can't make a living."
I appreciate the sentiment, Posolxstvo.
"We also have to put up with a lot more sexual harassment on account of our lowly status because of attitudes like the one I see in your post here. Most people see the entertainment industry as a big joke, and think artists have no entitlement to basic human rights."
I'm not sure what attitude you're talking about after having gone back and read the post. Anon, I don't think, and I don't know anyone that thinks, an artist has no "basic human rights."
To move with the flow of the comments, Pos, "worth" economically is I suppose derived by matching buyer and seller peceptions of value. That's true be the object to be valued is a house or a profession.
To be a bit of a devil's advocate with Fermi, the unidentified metro police force that I am talking about probably pays about what the officers are "worth" at the margin because it is attracting just enough people and keeping just enough people to limp along, though it is understaffed by a significant amount. If that understaffing increases to a point where citizens holler, pay will probably increase to attract and retain officers.
As Keith says, any profession has it's share of poor performers, contrary to Anon's 50% figure for police and teachers, I don't see too much evidence of poor work ethic in either profession. I also don't think that poor training has poor compensation as a necessary result.
And finally, I'll settle for rich, where do I sign up for the writing training?
Dave, in my personal experience, and according to anecdotal evidence from every person I have ever conversed with on the subject whom I would credit with a basic ability to differentiate between good and poor job performance, 50% is a generous estimate.
In my own life, maybe 15% of the teachers and police men I have interacted with did their jobs satisfactorily. And I understand this is an issue throughout North America, where a certain mentality is perpetuated in the media. (It's what prompted me to chide in here-- Fermicat's assertion that people in the entertainment industry ought to be less valued than police officers).
Granted, this information is derived from my own circle of acquaintance, but I have known a broad spectrum of people, and I find that my personal observations tend to materialize reasonably often-- at least often enough to allow me the confidence to weigh them into my outlook on life.
I am not sure where you got the idea I intended to draw a direct association between the efficacy of a person's training, and their salary level. If anything, by pointing this out, you are underlining the point I was driving at, which is that people are more often than not compensated on scales which have little to do with their level of competency as professionals, and are rewarded more for their ability to politicize their way through jobs. In fact, in my experience, it is those who do their work with care who are least likely to be promoted in our current climate. This is not to say that there are no people of merit in positions of influence, but rather that I have found a certain cultural deterioration to be present in all sectors of society.
It all boils down to fundamental problems in education, and conditioning, all of which are underlined by a necessity to provide sound cultural influences in the media arts. And make no mistake, it's work just like any other job. Although I agree we have been inundated with too much poor quality art of late, which again asserts my point that there is a cultural problem in education.
As for your insistence that artists do not have issues with human rights abuses, I could tell you personal stories about friends of mine who were born into affluence, and abused growing up because they are artists. The role of artist is one which has been stigmatized by business interests who seek to suppress the inherent change which art brings to culture-- because increasingly, people with poor educations are making it to positions of affluence. It's not because they have any valid concerns about these artists upsetting the status quo that they perpetuate these trends, but rather because they are ignorant of the true value of art as a societal mechanism.
I am not proposing a union between Church and State, I am merely proposing that in suppressing "bad behavior" rather than promoting education, we create more and more bad art, which makes money because it's propagation relies on dishonesty, rather than on cultural appeal to our citizens, as good art will do of it's own merits-- and thus the cycle of ick continues.
Anon, I got my idea of your correlation of poor training and poor compensation from your phrase "I remind you that when people are not properly trained, and, subsequently, not properly compensated..." in one of your comments.
Most of the people that I know that are good at what they do make pretty good money. Some of them are highly educated. Some of them aren't. Interestingly, the people that I know, and this is not anything but anecdotal evidence, that have and make the most money are the least educated among the people I know. This is not to say that they aren't smart. They are quite intelligent, they just don't have a lot of book learning and letters that they can put after their names.
They make money because they aren't in structured occupations. They make their own structures, that make them money.
When it comes to artists, I don't know many, though I might stretch the definition to include the people I mentioned above.
As to Fermi's comments about rich artists and athletes and your chiding, while I think that what they make is pretty stupid, I don't begrudge them the money. What ever they are putting out is making enough people happy to put out the stupid amount of money, in my view, that they take in. Why? To go back to my comment, there are meetings of the minds. Seller and buyer get sufficient value from the exchange of talent and money that the exchange happens.
Finally, most people that go into policing or teaching or artistic endeavor are not money motivated. That may be one of the causes of the fact that most of them don't make a lot of money.
Thanks for making me think Anon.
Dave,
I see what you're driving at. Sad as it is to have to guard what ought to be common knowledge because some would still manage to profit from it at the expense of others, even in the face of it's full glory! Such ironies we face in life, eh?
Glad you enjoyed the conversation.
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