[at-l] re: jobs, life and such

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C.)]

>"... Why not find an occupation that you enjoy and do that."

Wonderful advice. Do it if you can find such a thing. But sadly, most jobs
available these days are not jobs that anyone enjoys. I was lucky. I bounced
around for a decade, doing dumb jobs that no one could like -- other than they
were so dumb that you didn't have to think about them, so could think of hills
and flowers, and mountains, and Maine.

 But then I had a job I loved for 35 years. It didn't pay much by ordinary
 standards, but it was worth it. I found a niche, and loved going to work.

 But that is not really an option for most. Very few  mill workers, the post
 office workers, the convenience store workers, the fast food workers ... enjoy
 what they are doing.

 Something is out of whack these days. We are exporting the manufacturing jobs
 overseas. And for those jobs that can't be exported, we are importing minimum
 wage workers, migrant workers, or less to do those also.

 Americans should be basking in leisure. Much of the world is working for a
 dollar or two a day to build us stuff. But we are not. We work longer hours on
 average than any other industrial nation in the world.

 The system is broke. I'm not sure it's fair that most of the world should work
 to build us stuff. But I'm sure something is wrong when each year we have to
 work more and more just to eat, and we have more kids not getting health care
 they need than any other "developed" country.

 There is a sickness afoot that neither medicare, nor drug benefits for elders
 has any chance of solving.

 Sorry for the rant.  I know Ryan, it's off topic. But it's therapeutic for me
 anyway. I have to write it or I work it over and over in my mind, and after a
 bit that becomes too unpleasant. I have to spit it out, so I can think of
 something else.

 Weary