I’ve spent most of my working career in jobs that aren’t highly needed. Everyone is familiar with demography, and recognizes that it’s great information to have – but there isn’t much use for a demographer in the private sector. There might be gig work available if the government paid demographers weren’t already there – I did get private funding for various projects. But in general, it takes a rich society to afford a demographer. It takes a rich society to provide any social science job. I saw a headline this morning: “Nothing Discourages Entrepreneurship Like Overpaid Government Jobs.” They have a point – most of my working life was in government jobs. Can’t say they were particularly overpaid, but obviously they were comfortable enough that I stayed with them instead of moving into private enterprise.
When I started school, many of my elementary teachers were ‘normal school’ graduates – basically one year after high school. Now the beginning elementary teacher has a bachelor’s degree, and frequently, by stages, she gets a non-thesis master’s degree. I’m not sure that the level of teacher education correlates positively with student outcomes. The statistics I read suggest that those ‘normal school’ teachers that were still teaching when I started school had results that matched, or exceeded, today’s faculty that holds graduate degrees. Our certification programs, our continued education, may just be an employment luxury that isn’t needed in day to day operations.
I have heard many more people looking for plumbers, for carpenters, electricians, mechanics than there are people looking for demographers. My profession is, and has been, a job that only a wealthy society can afford. The mechanics, the carpenters. the normal school teachers are jobs that are needed.
John Wayne might have understood – his job was another luxury job. Only a rich society could afford the entertainment industry that grew into Hollywood. A poorer society stayed with entertainment they could create themselves.
And that brings me to government. It takes a rich society to afford the amount of government we have. The level of national debt shows that the representatives we elect spend money as if the society were much wealthier. From what I’ve encountered in the past misconduct of our county health department, we are fortunate when we do not get all the government we pay for. It takes a rich society to afford the amount of government we have – not just in Washington, but also in Helena and Libby. I suspect we have more politicians and bureaucrats than even our rich society can afford. We’re just not that rich.
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