When I was younger, I wanted to be a teacher or a profession that helps people. My father discouraged this because they don't make a lot of money. (This is a topic for a whole other post...)
Later, I had the idea to make a lot of money in the corporate world as a way to take money from them and use it towards tzedakah -- as an alternate way of helping people.
We just saw the "Lexmas" episode of Smallville which, in my opinion, dealt with a big question: Why does it end up that people who make a lot of money and have power are almost always "bad guys"? Why are there so few people like Bono, who puts his fame and fortune to use as a way to help the world?
In the show, Lex chooses between giving up his family's money but having his wife die because she can't get the best medical care, or being a disgusting person who destroys other people in order to get as much power as possible. As a viewer, I felt Lex had a third option -- he could continue to make money but bring ethics into the picture and be a good person. But reality shows that his view plays out most of the time.
(Of course, the other problem is that people without money can't get even their basic medical or nutritional needs...)
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3 comments:
I also wanted to be a teacher and my mother discouraged it also, but not because of the money issue! She knew me too well and knew that I can't put up with soft administrations and complete misbehavior.
I personally think that teaching is a great job for women. On top of getting summers off and not being forced to pay for camps and day care in the summer that you might otherwise not want or need, you run a similiar schedule to your children.
In addition, teaching is a job where one can take off time and re-enter the job market without completely outdated information.
And, with more education and great drive, there are higher paying administrative positions that offer some of the same benefits of teaching with higher pay. Plus, you get full benefits like health and pension (I'm looking at public schools).
I'd say that a 40,000 teaching job would leave me with more money after expenses than a 50,000-60,000 accounting job.
I think that helping people jobs are wonderful jobs for women, I myself dreamt of teaching but financially it is not an appealing career choice, however for a women who's working is often to supplement the family income I believe it's a wonderful fulfilling job.
I think the problem is that most people that want to give back to the community and help others once they get rich have such a hard time getting to that point. There are some rich people, like Bono, Bill Gates or even Tiger Woods, that do so much good with their money, but the problem is that they are the exception instead of the rule. Those that dream of one day helping others are stuck where they are--or they try to help others while they are trying to move up and this leaves them with not enough to move to the next step on the ladder.
Teachers are very much needed, and they need to be paid more. But the plus side of being a teacher is that if you are in a large city--like her in LA--the pay is not too bad. It is just hard to start off. There needs to be incentives for younger people to become teachers. This problem hits about everyone around my age--26--where it is so hard to get started because of the cost of living vs. salaries. The people in my profession--construction--that are even 10 years older than me, are able to make a living because they bought their first place relatively cheap. They then can use their equity to step up the ladder. As for me and my age group, we need to hang in there for 5 more years and hope that we can afford something then--that way we can start are journey up the ladder, meanwhile continuing to give back.
Sorry for digressing, but I hope my sister doesn't mind ;)
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