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Reporter and Professor: Where Did I Go Wrong?
American Thinker.com ^ | January 1, 2021 | Mike Landry

Posted on 01/01/2021 5:40:21 AM PST by Kaslin

I was raised in the work-for-the-same-company-all-your-life-and-retire-with-a-gold-watch era. Today, however, we’re told we’ll have several careers over a lifetime; indeed, if you stay at the same job for more than a few years you’ll be viewed as dull and stagnant.

I was ahead of the curve—for over 50 years I worked as a broadcaster, journalist, church pastor, primary and secondary school teacher, and a university professor. Perhaps only Sinatra did more, singing of being a “puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.”

Some jobs got more respect than others. Starting out in radio, a fellow disc jockey and I would tell the joke of the stricken plane that could only be saved if it reduced weight by throwing out one person, the person deemed to be of the least value to society. But the plane crashed because passengers and crew couldn’t determine who was worth the least: The radio disc jockey or the used car salesman.

But I moved up the professional food chain. Two satisfying – even fun – jobs were those of being a journalist and later a business professor. I was in journalism in the ‘70s in television, radio, and newspapers. It commanded respect, especially in the newspaper business. It was heady stuff being in one’s 20s and 30s and knowing the power one wielded because of the serious editors, the big printing press, the hard-working people in the composing room, and that fleet of trucks designed to rumble one’s modest words out to the waiting city. Important people made time for me, returned my phone calls, and generally followed the adage of not messing with guys who bought ink by the barrel and newsprint by the loaded trucks or railcars.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
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1 posted on 01/01/2021 5:40:21 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

“Pauper” is NOT a résumé enhancer.


2 posted on 01/01/2021 5:43:44 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Pauper is not a detriment if you are a grievance monger with a bull horn.


3 posted on 01/01/2021 6:04:02 AM PST by The_Media_never_lie (I do not regret my decision to cut all ties with Fox News. )
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To: Kaslin

I, as many others, no longer respect many professions formerly revered.

As for university degrees, a great many are not worth the paper they are printed on. It is a sad situation that the putrescence of progressives has even begun to rot the edges of STEM subjects. Thankfully, within STEM, the idiocy of some simple stooges who have managed to cheat/purchase/fake their way in will have their ineptness revealed by nature, which somehow manages to follow true logic instead of “Fauci or Eddikashun math science”.


4 posted on 01/01/2021 6:05:43 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Da Coyote

ya..talk to Boeing about that!


5 posted on 01/01/2021 6:07:07 AM PST by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you don't understand, no explanation is possible)
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To: Da Coyote

Our plumber has a higher annual income than a lot of the PhD we know.

And far better job security.


6 posted on 01/01/2021 6:08:16 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: Kaslin

I have a hard time believing that in 1976, the 200th anniversary of America’s Independence, somebody would not stand for the national anthem. I think the author is either mistaken on the date, or lying.


7 posted on 01/01/2021 6:09:46 AM PST by nwrep
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To: mo

Boeing’s engineers are fine.
However, I’ll talk to the MBAs, Poli Sci, Business, and other idiots that have succeeded in turning a fine engineering firm into something with Microsoft quality.


8 posted on 01/01/2021 6:10:03 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: mewzilla

“Our plumber has a higher annual income than a lot of the PhD we know.”

People need their excrement to flow away rather than keeping it around to talk about it endlessly thus the plumber has greater utility than the professor.


9 posted on 01/01/2021 6:30:47 AM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: mewzilla
Our plumber has a higher annual income

If I had a kid I would point him/her in the direction of the skilled trades.

Back in the 70's and 80's we had a male nurse at our auto stamping plant. One day he he confided in me that he wished he wouldn't have spent 4 years getting a nursing degree and instead should have found a trade apprenticeship.

He eventually was offered a position as a shop supervisor at a new stamping plant we obtained in Kentucky......LOL!

My nephew's son just graduated from high school this past June. He is definitely not college material due to ADD but fortunately for him, two years ago his high school started an after school welding training program which he enrolled in and loved it.

So he enrolled in the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology in Ohio and will be starting in February. (fall classes were suspended). It's a year long program which costs approx. $30,000 but the job opportunities in that trade after his graduation will give him guaranteed employment with little debt......

10 posted on 01/01/2021 6:59:38 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: Kaslin

Summary: leftists destroy everything they touch.


11 posted on 01/01/2021 7:29:18 AM PST by Reeses (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a government pat down.)
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To: nwrep

I agree. I am a very conservative conservative. I love the USA for all it problems. I have lived 20 years of my 80 out away from the US in some of the poorest countries in the world.

I know from my experiences and then my continued reading there IS NO PLACE AS GOOD FOR PEOPLE TO LIVE AS THE USA.

It is unfortunate the we no longer send people overseas to work to improve the living conditions wherever they went. It is unfortunate the Elites and Soros as their head were not recognized sooner as the goons they are.

Goons think of themselves first, are so egocentric they do not recognize beauty when they see it unless they bought it. They absolutely will not help those less well or well off.

I despise people like that. I bet Covid is not a problem for them as they will know the truth behind the Covid lies, namely that Covid is less a problem for people’s survival than plain old flu. I hope Fauci and his ilk are really late to the trough of such swine.


12 posted on 01/01/2021 7:39:52 AM PST by Bodega
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To: Hot Tabasco

$30,000 for a 1 year welding training course is ridiculous. This should cost less than $5000. Local companies should subsidize it. Where is $30,000 going? These are not Ivy league PhD professors teaching welding.


13 posted on 01/01/2021 7:57:15 AM PST by nwrep
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To: Kaslin
By his standard I was really ahead of the curve. Over my working career I held more than 33 jobs. The only one I ever stuck with was my last one before retiring - 15 years.
14 posted on 01/01/2021 9:04:43 AM PST by rockrr ( Everything is different now...)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Indeed and he wonders why some jobs got more respect than others.


15 posted on 01/01/2021 9:13:11 AM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: Da Coyote

“As for university degrees, a great many are not worth the paper they are printed on.”

Try and tell that to the most sanctimonious self-Centered, Egotistic, Self-Absorbed, Arrogant I-Am-Smarter-Than-You-Because-You-Are-Not-A-Professor—butt-heads.


16 posted on 01/01/2021 10:50:37 AM PST by Hulka ( )
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To: Da Coyote

If that good.

Senior leadership is more concerned about their own EC than making good jets.


17 posted on 01/01/2021 10:51:52 AM PST by Hulka ( )
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To: Bodega

Well stated.


18 posted on 01/01/2021 10:53:09 AM PST by Hulka ( )
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To: mewzilla
The average salary of a full professor at a public university was $113,738

The national average salary for a Plumber is $48,994 in United States.

19 posted on 01/01/2021 10:53:41 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: nwrep

“These are not Ivy league PhD professors teaching welding.”

If they were PhD’s, then the cost would be ten times that amount.


20 posted on 01/01/2021 10:54:10 AM PST by Hulka ( )
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