Got Job?
July, 2001
Due to my stock-picking incompetence, my pile of cash is down 73% from its high, I thought it might be wise to look
at the want ads for the first time in 10 years. My area is retirement-oriented and most everyone not retired has problems making ends meet.
I was a construction-type in the 80's but now I'm too old for that, except maybe electrician, it has the best physical ease/hi
pay correlation in the building trades. The number of want ads had quadrupled since 1990,
however the quality and variety was about the same.
If the purpose of work is to (1) become energized, (2) fulfilled (3) have enjoyment and fun, and (4) put groceries
on the table,
then someone should notify the crafters of our present technical civilization, because I didn't see much of
1-3 in the want ads. My theory is that if you do something few people can do that society values, you'll be paid highly. So
many jobs require years of training and experience to pay well. Unless it's art or science, which always has something new going on, by the time you're making big bucks in most professions you've been repeating the same
motions for years.
Being an artistic type I started by looking at the art/craft galleries. I found a lot of really good arts and crafts, but
it didn't exactly resemble Wal-Mart at the checkout counters. I don't really have the art spirit. I need other art and artists to inspire me, but everything looked kind of
dull. 2 things I thought were interesting (probably
because I haven't tried them yet?) were Royce Carlson's welding and his wife Juanita's garden gnomes.
The
Roycemobile
He's doing the entry gate for Burning man, see http://zenzibar.com for details. Tickets to this must be bought in April when they're $90, not now, when they're $200. Then you actually have to go camp in Nevada for a week, why there, I don't know.
The other art/craft that interested me was furniture making, basically (insert pic of ugly furniture) because my furniture is "Early House Framing" style. For a
quick fix I thought some decorative painted s.w. stuff on the legs
might work. My neighbor has a wood lathe, might be fun to gnaw out a few piano
legs.
When's the last time you heard anyone described as 'laid back' ? Now they're called 'slackers' and
that's a bad thing. The entire world is or soon shall be enslaved to capitalism, but people are too stupid to even raise the question of 'why'? Since the market crashed, there's not even any point, look at Japan, they keep churning out kewel
gizmos, but their economy sucks.
Well, to the want ads. There's probably a scientific name for the form of depression that inflicts people who open up the want ads. Hey, I used to be a professional educator:
"Health Educator for tobacco education program, $14.30 per hour (your cigarette taxes at work). That's above the
national average, and WAY above Yavapai County average. I love tobacco, smoke cigars, I could do that job!
nicotine goes good with thinking but is murder on jogging.
The county starts its lawyers at $39K and its teachers at $19K. <----NOT A TYPO!
Teachers recently got a raise to $25K..
Health Care..
There are 2 positions: doctors and doctor's slaves. Wonder why there are 400,000 nursing vacancies nationwide?
"Physician Assistant-looking for a superstar..."
Excuse me? Are you planning on paying them $10 million a year or something?
Restaurant Services-these jobs are brutal, except for 'Restaurant Owner' or "Restaurant Investor Who Guessed Right".
Sales- no skills here, might be interesting to try and fail just for the experience. I've never understood why the world's economy depends on ever-increasing production, consumption, corporate earnings. The official culture seems pointed 180
degrees from what actually makes people happy. I suppose it's better than medieval times, at least people can now despise
life longer.
Ahh..here's one-"High School Spirit Line Coach" Cheerleaders...yum...no, better stay away from that stuff, I have an
imagination.
"Mechanical Assembly- part time/full time 7 days a week." Is that legal?
Government jobs-beyond 'astronaut' and 'corrupt congressman' there's nothing here of interest.
That's the end of the want ads. No wonder people are unhappy if that's how they spend their lives. Of course, the want
ads are aimed at grunts with no connections like me. Probably most of the good ones will go to people who already know
the hiring authority. Oh well, all my stocks but one went up yesterday, so I'm safe until Monday. I really like making a computer
game, except those damned actors drive me nuts. If I could sell 1,000 copies at $15 apiece, I would. Better finish it first, though.
December, 2001
I've stopped the bleeding in stocks, mainly because of the bull market that started Sept 21. I also read the Gardner's books,visit www.fool.com for details, and Martin Zweig, 'Winning on Wall Street', and 'Investor's Business Daily', the newspaper. For a while there it looked like I was destined to own each of the 9,000 publicly traded U.S. stocks, one right after the other. Now I don't buy a stock unless I've downloaded the companies' income, balance, cash flow, earnings, ratio, etc. statements. Next year I plan to actually read them before buying.
Still, it's going to be a potato Christmas, no new notebook, not even a desktop. Well, maybe a pair of snowshoes and a 17-inch LCD monitor, but that goes under 'health insurance.'
A Political Note
This terrorism thing, it's not about America vs. Islamic fundamentalists. It's about technical civilization vs. nontechnical civilization. Ever since one of our ancestors first figured out a sharp rock could do a better job than a tooth, nature has been selecting us fortechnology, all technology, any technology. Why? here's a hint: Which country has the longest average lifespan (84!) and is also the most technically advanced? Japan. Technology promotes life, more or less. Of course some technologies kill hundreds, thousands of people, but nature's not interested in individuals, only the species. There's a good piece on this in "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. Technical civilization is in our genes and will eventually include every human on the planet, and you may have noticed it's not shy at all about breaking a few eggs in order to impose itself. Look at the First World. Just about everybody not in a coma is a slave to the production/consumption machine that seems necessary (so far, anyway) for technical civilization, and now I hear the average worker will have to continue working until age 75 to support it.
TIP: Don't be average.
Nobody said we were smart, just technical.
Wasn't there a band
called Counting Crows?
Black Canyon Indian Ruins by Ron and Diane