Michelle Obama: "Don't Go Into Corporate America"

The Corner at NRO ^ | 29 February 2008 | Byron York

[SE Mom]

I have a new story today about Michelle Obama's visit to Zanesville, Ohio, where she met with a group of women at a local day care center. According to the U.S. Census, Muskingum County, where Zanesville is located, had a median household income of $37,192 in 2004, below both the Ohio and national averages. Just 12.2 percent of adults in the county have a bachelor's degree or higher, also well below the state and national averages. About 20 percent don't have a high school degree. Nevertheless, Mrs. Obama urged them to foreswear lucrative professions like corporate law or hedge fund management and go into the helping industry, even if the sacrifice is great:

-As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

Mrs. Obama also bemoaned the amount of money she has to spend — nearly one-third of the median household income in Zanesville — on piano, dance, and other lessons for her two children. But she was grateful for the concern her husband's supporters have shown for her. "Everywhere I go, no matter what, the women in the audience, their first question for me is, 'How on earth are you managing it, how are you keeping it all together?'" she told the women.

02/29 08:19 AM

[khnyny]

from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.

That's an incredible "jump". Michelle Obama's salary increases by almost $200,000 within months??? Ruh roh, there's the dirt, lol.

[MrB]

You’ll see this over and over again with wealthy socialists -

they didn’t have to work very hard to get their wealth, and assume all other wealthy people got there the same way.

Those who had to work for their wealth resent having it stolen from them for the benefit of those that refuse to earn their own living.

[Red_Devil 232]

She Will Be More Dangerous Than Hillary Ever Was If She Gets Into The White House!

[mylife]

I have said this for some time now.

The Clintons are socialists.
The Obamas are RADICAL Socialists

[Corin Stormhands]

"Everywhere I go, no matter what, the women in the audience, their first question for me is, 'How on earth are you managing it, how are you keeping it all together?'" she told the women.

And, honestly, without my maid and my cook and my nanny and my driver, I don't know how we'd manage...

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Damn, I wish my salary would triple in a year. But that’s not how it goes for the little people, only politicos and their connected spouses.

[Thrownatbirth]

jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.

That's even more than Hillary's cattle futures scam.

[reagan_fanatic]

The voters deserve the people they vote for - and she will probably end up as First Lady.

A stark indicator on how far we've fallen.

[tennteacher]

Thanks, SE Mom. I could not remember what her job was. I’m sure that, given her title, she considers herself a social worker. I have a masters plus 30 hours, and she still makes double my teacher’s salary before I retired a year ago.

[Vigilanteman]

You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that.

Some factoids for Michelle:

1. School teachers in our district average $59K per year. There are hundreds of applicants everytime there is an opening. Most of the time, the district doesn't even advertise the openings because the deluge of applications would be so large. Meanwhile, local factories have trouble recruiting machinists, partly because they don't want to hire anyone over 40.

2. Nursing schools are filled to the gills and very competitive to get into. My daughter is worried that her mere A- average won't cut it.

3. Could either of the above problems be because we have ninnys like you forcing taxpayers to subsidize colleges who train future Marxists, community organizers and women's study majors but can't tell which end of a rectal thermometer to insert?

Consider also if your minions have your way, there will be even more kids going into professions which consume tax dollars so there will be even fewer to earn the money to pay for them.

[FMBass]

I think she has a point. Don’t go into corporate America, go into government instead. Heck, just by her husband doing that her salary went from $122k to $317k!

[khnyny]

"Everywhere I go, no matter what, the women in the audience, their first question for me is, 'How on earth are you managing it, how are you keeping it all together?'" she told the women.

Michelle stole that line right out of Hillary's play-book. Hillary said virtually the same, exact thing when she broke down and "cried".

[SE Mom]

She fails to mention that “corporate America” is what marketed and sold those books for Sen. Obama.
—
BINGO! This is precisely what the left is apparently incapable of grasping. WITHOUT the hated corporations- where would the country actually BE?

Is there corruption in corporate America? You bet. Is there corruption in government? Absolutely. But remember- Barck will cure the sickness in our souls - as his wife has explained to us recently...

A chill is crossing the land in warm rhetoric.

[oldleft]

The Obamas are scary. What they say is very similar to what Hugo was saying before he was elected.

[mylife]

Damn! did she just give me a smack down?

Uh Uhhh..dont go there *wagging finger*

[Sam's Army]

Hmm. I have had a few different things on my resume of life. Guess which segment has paid me the most thus far? (Hint: it wasn’t a taxpayer supported entity)

[stentorian conservative]

Funny, that was the first thing I thought when I read, "Mrs. Obama urged them to foreswear lucrative professions like corporate law or hedge fund management and go into the helping industry, even if the sacrifice is great."

It makes me want to convert all that I own over to gold. Frightening indeed.

[mass55th]

I wonder how much they pay the Nanny to supervise and drag the kids to all these extra-curricular activities. It’s obvious with her demanding job, that she can’t be free to regularly share these lessons with her kids. Some working woman find it easier to keep their kids occupied by signing them up for loads of activities, than it is to share quality time with them. Perhaps it helps with the guilt feelings of not being able to be there.

[kenavi]

I’m afraid she’s a Theresa Heinz for all seasons.

[mass55th]

"What a phony."

Yes, she is. Has she said anything about leaving her position at the hospital to live in Washington if her husband is elected?