Thank you for this ❤️ I've always done "caring" jobs because they suited me best. It's a little hard to explain but I have real difficulty doing work that just exists to make a paycheck? At the same time I'm absolutely ill-suited to service jobs that might have a lot in common with caretaking except for the fact that the person doesn't actually need care, they just want to pay for the ability to not have to do things for themselves. It's not a problem to me that other people are happy doing those jobs, it's just that when I've attempted to do them I'm not the best version of myself. That's not to say there are no rude, unpleasant, or entitled people who require care all the same. I can still deal with them professionally when they're in a nursing home in a way that I struggled with when I was their waitress. I've worked with the elderly, animals, and children and none of those jobs paid especially well. It says something about us that I made the most when I worked taking care of people's pets, made several dollars an hour less (with much worse hours) taking care of their elderly parents, and made starvation wages (but the most "normal" schedule) taking care of their infants and toddlers. Worse than the pay though was the constant assumption by just about every single person I interacted with initially that I wasn't very intelligent or intellectually curious. Then if they bothered to talk with me eventually they'd want to know what I was doing working in that kind of job - the kind for ignorant people being the implication. There wasn't really a good way to say; "So I can sleep at night" without seeming to imply they shouldn't be.
Yes. It's also depriving those positions of people who would work in those jobs if they paid better, and would bring a lot more imagination and creativity to the work. The whole situation makes me really sad and angry.
Fantastic post, Michelle!!! Another fulfilling and important job that pays low money that you touched on just a bit was child care. A girlfriend of mine has worked for many years in child care at a daycare center, which is a huge responsibility that she is very passionate about. In fact, taking care of other people's kids, and keeping them safe & entertained etc., is about as big a responsibility as one can have. Yet it pays low wages!!! And of course, many of those daycare centers make sure that she and the other care providers get exactly 30 hours a week at most so they are not officially "full time" and do not receive any benefits or overtime.
I also think it's obscene that parasites like corporate lawyers make large amounts of money while caregivers and teachers do not. Yet under capitalism "success" is primarily defined by how much money you make, not what you contribute to the world. And being an avid consumer in the market is considered "contributing."
Caring for and educating children are among the most important jobs. We should value them. Of course, parenting is the ultimate important and unpaid "job," which is another whole subject.
For what it's worth, Michelle, I believe that parents who are mostly stay-at-home should receive a sizable UBI, as well as fully subsidized help with shopping, cooking, etc. as needed. And, of course, full universal health care for parents and children. Jobs for parents who do work should include fully subsidized daycare center attachments so they can bring their kids to work with them and check on them periodically throughout the day, including the option to have lunch with their kids. Parents should not be stuck taking care of their kids entirely on their own, but should be helped by well paid caregivers who would find the work both personally fulfilling and receive good material compensation for it.
I'd much rather we spend money on that than funding wars or bailing out banks.
I never even knew it was possible to make saltine crackers from scratch!! :-D And btw, I keep wondering what your friend Berlin would say to all of this.
Berlin can’t even cut up a tomato, and unfortunately, I’m not kidding. She declined to eat a home-grown squash because she thought it might not be safe to eat. She is completely unaware of where food comes from.
Ironically, that's the silver lining of being disabled. I'm finally able to take the time to pursue my passion for writing because I'm lucky enough to receive disability pay, for now.
I know. My whole life I worked myself half to death just to stay alive and never had time to devote myself to my passion. Now that death is gaining ground, I'm making the most of the time I have left to devote myself to what I've wanted to do all along. I try to think of that as a bright spot.
Well, I'm following a two-pronged path. I've been working on a memoir, which has split into two halves, for the past couple of years. My plan is to begin querying the memoir next month. The first half is about growing up disabled and below the poverty level and my struggle to overcome childhood trauma and domestic violence to climb up to middle class.
The 2nd book, if the first one succeeds, is about finally reaching a stable life and going into heart failure and receiving a heart transplant, living a good life for nearly 13 years, then heart failure leads to a second heart transplant, but with complications, leaving me where I am now.
And I've been a poet for over 40 years. I began submitting my work last year, and over the past year and a half, I've gotten two dozen poems and essays published. Next summer, I scheduled time to work with an established poet friend to create a poetry book for publication.
When I saw your post I decided to add up what I donated in December. $215, mostly in small amounts $3-$10, too much to politicians, not enough to worthy NGOs trying to feed hungry people. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but a major reallocation of funding for food will be one. I'm lucky that financially I don't need to care less, but my priorities will shift!
As a teacher and public librarian, I was paid far less than I might have been in a private sector job. Job satisfaction became higher when I moved from teaching to library work, due in part to having greater autonomy and frankly, far fewer hours. But a lot less money!
Eventually I was able to earn a similar salary to my teaching jobs, but library work paid a pittance for quite a few years. Then our county consulted with a state university to find out why their local government employees were leaving to work for neighboring counties with as little enticement as a .25 per hour pay raise. The university conducted interviews with all employees to define their job responsibilities and found, unsurprisingly, that salaries were far too low for their levels of responsibility.
To the county's credit, I was also given a chance to advocate for our library employees, and we all ended up with a very good pay raise. But still, I make slightly more in retirement than I did while working. 🤷🏼♀️ Good retirement benefits. I am appreciative.
I’m in Illinois, where teachers make very good salaries. Part of me wishes I’d chosen teaching as a career. I’d be retired and financially comfortable now and would be able to sleep at night!
“It’s as if the system will not be satisfied until everyone is spending every waking hour feeding the machine.”
I’m afraid it will not be satisfied even then. Human greed seems to be a bottomless pit (as seen in Musk and Bezos, for example). Nothing will *ever* satisfy their thirst for wealth and power.
This is something I think about a lot. I feel like being able to "succeed" in the traditional sense mostly doesn't require actual skills or passion for the work but instead just needs people who are able to be ruthless towards others. I hate that so much of what people have to do to earn a living wage doesn't actually benefit society, while people who are doing jobs that are absolutely crucial are often struggling to make ends meet.
I love to fantasize about caregivers, artists, writers, teachers, social workers etc. being able to live lives of dignity and CEOs doing their CEO stuff as a side hustle just for love of business, but understanding that it will never pay enough for them to live on :)
Yeah. I spent my life teaching preschoolers, a job I loved every day. I couldn’t have afforded to do it had it not been for my partner, who worked as an engineer for a huge corporation. He made tons of money but didn’t enjoy his work. No good solution.
Engineering is worthwhile work but so is teaching preschoolers! It's crazy how much we overpay some engineers and how much we underpay all preschool teachers. (A friend of mine is an engineer for a Fortune 500 company. He loves that work, and it's worthwhile, but man does he make buckets of money.)
I have worked so many jobs through the years that I hated but knew I had to eat. I still work gig jobs now and again to help even at my age. I will be 69 in a couple of months. I made over $1100 last month with IT gig work and I already have another contract assigned for January.
Things will continue to get worse as the country declines. All we can do is hang on, doing the best we can to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. I expect I will continue working for my IT company for another couple of years or more, depending on the state of the economy.
You know, even if I didn't have a "worthy" passion, like gardening or artistry or caregiving, I should still be able to have an easy, basic job and at the very least a simple comfortable life! Like decent housing (a studio or shared is fine!), healthcare, community. I know I'm missing the point, but really my point is that everyone deserves a dignified life, and shouldn't be punished for wanting something that makes their heart happy.
Thank you. It does feel much more impressive to imagine I'm committing a "revolutionary act" by spending my time writing and painting rather than grinding to earn (more) money.
I also feel that our entire society is perfectly calibrated to incentivize exactly the behaviours that make the world worse for everyone -- selfishness, wastefulness, obnoxiousness, etc. It's a subject I've been thinking of writing about, if I can ever wrap my head around it.
Thank you for this ❤️ I've always done "caring" jobs because they suited me best. It's a little hard to explain but I have real difficulty doing work that just exists to make a paycheck? At the same time I'm absolutely ill-suited to service jobs that might have a lot in common with caretaking except for the fact that the person doesn't actually need care, they just want to pay for the ability to not have to do things for themselves. It's not a problem to me that other people are happy doing those jobs, it's just that when I've attempted to do them I'm not the best version of myself. That's not to say there are no rude, unpleasant, or entitled people who require care all the same. I can still deal with them professionally when they're in a nursing home in a way that I struggled with when I was their waitress. I've worked with the elderly, animals, and children and none of those jobs paid especially well. It says something about us that I made the most when I worked taking care of people's pets, made several dollars an hour less (with much worse hours) taking care of their elderly parents, and made starvation wages (but the most "normal" schedule) taking care of their infants and toddlers. Worse than the pay though was the constant assumption by just about every single person I interacted with initially that I wasn't very intelligent or intellectually curious. Then if they bothered to talk with me eventually they'd want to know what I was doing working in that kind of job - the kind for ignorant people being the implication. There wasn't really a good way to say; "So I can sleep at night" without seeming to imply they shouldn't be.
That's really sad, that we assume caregivers are dumb rather than, you know, CARING.
Yes. It's also depriving those positions of people who would work in those jobs if they paid better, and would bring a lot more imagination and creativity to the work. The whole situation makes me really sad and angry.
Fantastic post, Michelle!!! Another fulfilling and important job that pays low money that you touched on just a bit was child care. A girlfriend of mine has worked for many years in child care at a daycare center, which is a huge responsibility that she is very passionate about. In fact, taking care of other people's kids, and keeping them safe & entertained etc., is about as big a responsibility as one can have. Yet it pays low wages!!! And of course, many of those daycare centers make sure that she and the other care providers get exactly 30 hours a week at most so they are not officially "full time" and do not receive any benefits or overtime.
I also think it's obscene that parasites like corporate lawyers make large amounts of money while caregivers and teachers do not. Yet under capitalism "success" is primarily defined by how much money you make, not what you contribute to the world. And being an avid consumer in the market is considered "contributing."
Caring for and educating children are among the most important jobs. We should value them. Of course, parenting is the ultimate important and unpaid "job," which is another whole subject.
For what it's worth, Michelle, I believe that parents who are mostly stay-at-home should receive a sizable UBI, as well as fully subsidized help with shopping, cooking, etc. as needed. And, of course, full universal health care for parents and children. Jobs for parents who do work should include fully subsidized daycare center attachments so they can bring their kids to work with them and check on them periodically throughout the day, including the option to have lunch with their kids. Parents should not be stuck taking care of their kids entirely on their own, but should be helped by well paid caregivers who would find the work both personally fulfilling and receive good material compensation for it.
I'd much rather we spend money on that than funding wars or bailing out banks.
I took extreme measures to make it possible for me to stay home with my children for several years. I mean, I made SALTINE CRACKERS FROM SCRATCH!
Ha! Not saltines but I do know how to make a mean graham cracker! lol
I didn’t try those!
When civilization gasps its last, you and I will be trading crackers for shelter.
LOL!!! Right?!
I never even knew it was possible to make saltine crackers from scratch!! :-D And btw, I keep wondering what your friend Berlin would say to all of this.
Crackers are actually easy to make!
Berlin can’t even cut up a tomato, and unfortunately, I’m not kidding. She declined to eat a home-grown squash because she thought it might not be safe to eat. She is completely unaware of where food comes from.
I only wish I had learned all of the practical skills you acquired to make life easier for someone in our economic class.
Unfortunately for some of us, caring about books can be just as impoverishing as caring about hungry children.
Absolutely. I don't expect to ever sell enough books to make enough money.
[liked because I appreciate the reality, not because I approve of the fact!]
Ironically, that's the silver lining of being disabled. I'm finally able to take the time to pursue my passion for writing because I'm lucky enough to receive disability pay, for now.
Man, this society really needs to understand that people should not have to be disabled in order to have time to create. But this is where we are now.
I know. My whole life I worked myself half to death just to stay alive and never had time to devote myself to my passion. Now that death is gaining ground, I'm making the most of the time I have left to devote myself to what I've wanted to do all along. I try to think of that as a bright spot.
I think you should tell us all about your passions! What are you working on right now?
Well, I'm following a two-pronged path. I've been working on a memoir, which has split into two halves, for the past couple of years. My plan is to begin querying the memoir next month. The first half is about growing up disabled and below the poverty level and my struggle to overcome childhood trauma and domestic violence to climb up to middle class.
The 2nd book, if the first one succeeds, is about finally reaching a stable life and going into heart failure and receiving a heart transplant, living a good life for nearly 13 years, then heart failure leads to a second heart transplant, but with complications, leaving me where I am now.
And I've been a poet for over 40 years. I began submitting my work last year, and over the past year and a half, I've gotten two dozen poems and essays published. Next summer, I scheduled time to work with an established poet friend to create a poetry book for publication.
I checked it out and encourage everyone to do so!
When I saw your post I decided to add up what I donated in December. $215, mostly in small amounts $3-$10, too much to politicians, not enough to worthy NGOs trying to feed hungry people. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but a major reallocation of funding for food will be one. I'm lucky that financially I don't need to care less, but my priorities will shift!
Bless you for your generosity!
As a teacher and public librarian, I was paid far less than I might have been in a private sector job. Job satisfaction became higher when I moved from teaching to library work, due in part to having greater autonomy and frankly, far fewer hours. But a lot less money!
Eventually I was able to earn a similar salary to my teaching jobs, but library work paid a pittance for quite a few years. Then our county consulted with a state university to find out why their local government employees were leaving to work for neighboring counties with as little enticement as a .25 per hour pay raise. The university conducted interviews with all employees to define their job responsibilities and found, unsurprisingly, that salaries were far too low for their levels of responsibility.
To the county's credit, I was also given a chance to advocate for our library employees, and we all ended up with a very good pay raise. But still, I make slightly more in retirement than I did while working. 🤷🏼♀️ Good retirement benefits. I am appreciative.
I’m in Illinois, where teachers make very good salaries. Part of me wishes I’d chosen teaching as a career. I’d be retired and financially comfortable now and would be able to sleep at night!
“It’s as if the system will not be satisfied until everyone is spending every waking hour feeding the machine.”
I’m afraid it will not be satisfied even then. Human greed seems to be a bottomless pit (as seen in Musk and Bezos, for example). Nothing will *ever* satisfy their thirst for wealth and power.
This is something I think about a lot. I feel like being able to "succeed" in the traditional sense mostly doesn't require actual skills or passion for the work but instead just needs people who are able to be ruthless towards others. I hate that so much of what people have to do to earn a living wage doesn't actually benefit society, while people who are doing jobs that are absolutely crucial are often struggling to make ends meet.
I love to fantasize about caregivers, artists, writers, teachers, social workers etc. being able to live lives of dignity and CEOs doing their CEO stuff as a side hustle just for love of business, but understanding that it will never pay enough for them to live on :)
I've often said that I've been driven by mission not money. And boy oh boy am I paying for that now. The cruelty of end stage capitalism is barbaric.
Yes. We will suffer for it.
I honestly believed I was serving democracy and my community by working in community news. And I was — but it was all for naught.
Yeah. I spent my life teaching preschoolers, a job I loved every day. I couldn’t have afforded to do it had it not been for my partner, who worked as an engineer for a huge corporation. He made tons of money but didn’t enjoy his work. No good solution.
Engineering is worthwhile work but so is teaching preschoolers! It's crazy how much we overpay some engineers and how much we underpay all preschool teachers. (A friend of mine is an engineer for a Fortune 500 company. He loves that work, and it's worthwhile, but man does he make buckets of money.)
I have worked so many jobs through the years that I hated but knew I had to eat. I still work gig jobs now and again to help even at my age. I will be 69 in a couple of months. I made over $1100 last month with IT gig work and I already have another contract assigned for January.
Things will continue to get worse as the country declines. All we can do is hang on, doing the best we can to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. I expect I will continue working for my IT company for another couple of years or more, depending on the state of the economy.
You know, even if I didn't have a "worthy" passion, like gardening or artistry or caregiving, I should still be able to have an easy, basic job and at the very least a simple comfortable life! Like decent housing (a studio or shared is fine!), healthcare, community. I know I'm missing the point, but really my point is that everyone deserves a dignified life, and shouldn't be punished for wanting something that makes their heart happy.
Thank you. It does feel much more impressive to imagine I'm committing a "revolutionary act" by spending my time writing and painting rather than grinding to earn (more) money.
I also feel that our entire society is perfectly calibrated to incentivize exactly the behaviours that make the world worse for everyone -- selfishness, wastefulness, obnoxiousness, etc. It's a subject I've been thinking of writing about, if I can ever wrap my head around it.