Re: Classism (was Degree or Not Degree)

[Mc Jdub <wigginje -at- PSSCH -dot- PS -dot- GE -dot- COM>]

*I* was content to let it go; however,
> meisheid -at- EROLS -dot- COM wrote:
>
> There is an old maxim that says "you generally find what you are
> looking
> for" which is I think applies to most arguments of this type.
>
> My wife and her best friend are both programmers. Life is what you
> make
> it and success comes through perseverance. This whole discussion is
> pompus, childish, and a waste of time, not to mention it that fails to
> uderstand what is actually going on in the real world of today where
> the
> majority of new, small, high tech businesses are started by women.
>
> Trot out a soapbox and someone will stand on it. Never fails.
>
That's a nice trick -- how you prove your own comments with the comments
themselves.  Someone accused my soapbox of being red. What color is
yours?

Cliches such as "life is what you make it" never help anyone, and
demonstrate that the speaker of such inanities has failed to accurately
assess real-world conditions.

Maybe in isolated corners of Yourtown, USA, life looks fairly good --
"just work hard and you'll get ahead"; the majority of the world's
population, however, live in conditions you would describe as
frightening at best.  Are their lives what they've made them? Their
lives are what has been *allowed* them by those doing the allowing. The
extreme end of this spectrum -- and the tie-in to this "debate" -- is
the hiring manager who won't "allow" someone a job -- who won't even
*consider* "allowing" it -- because the applicant doesn't have a degree.


*That's* the real world. Are you going to argue with me now that people
with degrees don't make more money over time? The dept. of labor
statistics  says that they do.  If, therefore, a degree doesn't "mean"
anything in practical terms (i.e., the ability to do a job), then why
this salary discrepancy? Sounds to me like you want to pick one or two
isolated examples to continue living in denial ("my wife and her friend
don't have degrees and they do just fine").

No one needs a degree to do a tech writing job, if they have the
know-how, the experience, etc. The idea that they do need one is
ludicrous. I would bet, however, that if those same people had a degree,
they could demand at least 20 percent more salary than they are
currently making -- and get it. You think those kinds of issues are
"childish"? I'm always baffled when such important questions are
ridiculed and dismissed as a "waste of time."

Heating up (but still way too busy for flame mode),
Jeff Wiggin
mailto:wigginje -at- pssch -dot- ps -dot- ge -dot- com




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