Forums

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

The skills that lawyers, brokers and hedge-fund analysts have makes them more valuable in a market economy than teachers. The only crisis I can think of that has been severe enough to cause people to rethink that was when the Khmer Rouge took over in Cambodia, which was certainly a shock to the system but actually didn't turn out all that well for pretty much anybody. And in Cambodia today, I will wager that lawyers are paid more than teachers.

I know many of my kids' teachers. I like many of them. I am pretty sure that I could do what they do passably well. I am pretty sure that they could not do what I do. I am sympathetic with your notion that what they do is, on some level, more important. I do what I do partly in order to be able to pay to live in a nice neighborhood with good schools and better teachers. If I didn't have them to support, maybe I'd quit my job and write a novel.

You written plenty of fiction here, although mostly pretty transparent.