Posted on 06/11/2005 11:07:01 AM PDT by MikeHu
Sometimes it seems as if liberals have a genius for producing an unending stream of ideas that are counterproductive for the poor, whom they claim to be helping. Few of these notions are more counterproductive than the idea of "menial work" or "dead-end jobs."
Think about it: Why do employers pay people to do "menial" work? Because the work has to be done. What useful purpose is served by stigmatizing work that someone is going to have to do anyway?
Is emptying bed pans in a hospital menial work? What would happen if bed pans didn't get emptied? Let people stop emptying bed pans for a month and there would be bigger problems than if sociologists stopped working for a year.
Having someone who can come into a home to clean and cook and do minor chores around the house can be a godsend to someone who is an invalid or who is suffering the infirmities of age -- and who does not want to be put into an institution. Someone who can be trusted to take care of small children is likewise a treasure.
Many people who do these kinds of jobs do not have the education, skills or experience to do more complex kinds of work. Yet they can make a real contribution to society while earning money that keeps them off welfare.
Many low-level jobs are called "dead-end jobs" by liberal intellectuals because these jobs have no promotions ladder. But it is superficial beyond words to say that this means that people in such jobs have no prospect of rising economically.
Many people at all levels of society, including the richest, have at some point or other worked at jobs that had no promotions ladder, so-called "dead-end jobs." The founder of the NBC network began work as a teenager hawking newspapers on the streets. Billionaire Ross Perot began with a paper route.
You don't get promoted from such jobs. You use the experience, initiative, and discipline that you develop in such work to move on to something else that may be wholly different. People who start out flipping hamburgers at McDonald's seldom stay there for a full year, much less for life.
Dead-end jobs are the kinds of jobs I have had all my life. But, even though I started out delivering groceries in Harlem, I don't deliver groceries there any more. I moved on to other jobs -- most of which have not had any promotions ladders.
My only official promotion in more than half a century of working was from associate professor to full professor at UCLA. But that was really just a pay increase, rather than a real promotion, because associate professors and full professors do the same work.
Notions of menial jobs and dead-end jobs may be just shallow misconceptions among the intelligentsia but they are a deadly counterproductive message to the poor. Refusing to get on the bottom rung of the ladder usually means losing your chance to move up the ladder.
Welfare can give you money but it cannot give you job experience that will move you ahead economically. Selling drugs on the streets can get you more money than welfare but it cannot give you experience that you can put on a job application. And if you decide to sell drugs all your life, that life can be very short.
Back around the time of the First World War, a young black man named Paul Williams studied architecture and then accepted a job as an office boy at an architectural firm. He agreed to work for no pay, though after he showed up the company decided to pay him something, after all.
What they paid him would probably be dismissed today as "chump change." But what Paul Williams wanted from that company was knowledge and experience, more so than money.
He went on to create his own architectural company, designing everything from churches and banks to mansions for movie stars -- and contributing to the design of the theme building at Los Angeles International Airport.
The real chumps are those who refuse to start at the bottom for "chump change." Liberals who encourage such attitudes may think of themselves as friends of the poor but they do more harm than enemies.
Copyright 2005 Creators Syndicate
A hand out is not help.
Liberals have a need to be needed -- because they are not loved.
What liberals have done to the poor black man, the KKK used to only dream about. The devastation they have wrought upon them with just a few crumbs and years of lies and broken promises, just boggles the mind.
The great crime of all liberals is not allowing people to think for themselves.
They always demand that they must do the thinking for everybody else -- as well as the speaking; and while we're at it, we can just go ahead and pay them all the money.
Almost any job (including many career-type jobs that intellectuals fawn over) are 'dead-end jobs.' The idea is to increase your skill set, do good work, and get promoted to another role, or change companies to a place that will give you a chance. I've worked (among other things) as an intern at a public tv station, a paralegal, a law firm computer guy, an attorney, and each job led to a 'dead end.' I advanced by being flexible and willing to change my role or my company.
A friend of mine in Las Vegas was looking for work and finally 2 weeks ago got a job as a shill player in one of the town's poker rooms. He was down about it, but I said it was a start and as crappy as it is, since he is smart he would get a break. about a week and a half into his run, he got promoted to helping run a poker room shift - a solid raise, to boot! As much of a 'dead end' his first job seemed, he was flexible and aggressive and impressed them in short time.
It's more about attitude and flexibility than the nature of any given job.
Being a reporter or a school teacher is also a dead end job.
I told a co-worker of mine something that I've heard Larry Elder say on his show..."equal rights" does not mean "equal results".
Exactly!
Liberals seem to be very impressed by their phony status jobs; they think they have risen in this world if they get paid a lot of money for doing nothing. They ridicule people for working hard and doing something useful. Doing something useful is the ultimate liberal sin.
In their universe, one should be obstructive and ensure that nothing ever gets done -- so more high-paying jobs can be created to solve problems that get worse -- because of their interference.
I agree and like I said, there is nothing notable about their jobs - I know, I worked in careers that they tend to be impressed with!
And boy don't they get really pissed off when you point out that very lack of results when their theories are put in use. They accuse you of being hard hearted, racist, mean spirited, ad nauseum.
Reporters and school teachers are counterproductive jobs; their aim is to produce more ignorance, misinformation and disinformation -- to increase the need for more information and education high-paying jobs..
Liberals are entirely self-serving and self-aggrandizing. I wish they'd leave the poor and oppressed out of their justifications anymore -- because when they speak of the "poor and oppressed," they're referring to themselves -- the truly deserving of all the money they can pilfer intended for the poor and oppressed.
And did you know that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
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