It's not about being above the job...
But, in order to get an academic job, you have to have published or done something else to show that you're research-active. And, in practice, this does militate against having a day-job.

Yes, there was any number of other non-academic jobs I could have done - and I did walk into one shortly after. (It didn't last.) But the point is that I would not have been wasting my time in front of the telly - in writing papers, I'd've been doing something that would help me, and would have been capitalising on the (alleged) education I'd had.

Moreover, I have a slightly romantic idea of what work, and the benefits system, should be. Very roughly (and I don't have anything better), the thought goes that the point of work is that we aspire to be a certain kind of person: we want to flourish in some sense. It's unlikely that anyone will flourish if they're just herded into the first minimum-wage gig that crops up.

For sure, I can see that there has to be some limit to that - it's unreasonable to expect the state to pay indefinitely so that people can pursue their vague dreams. But I also think that you can be too quick to demand getting a job for its own sake.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 6 Apr 2009, 13:08, 2 replies)

Has anyone seen that Spaced episode?
Where Daisy has to be a caterer?

With Nurse Ratchet?

I feel just like that most days.
(Angie the Redneck Wonder, Mon 6 Apr 2009, 13:43, closed)

I see what you're saying
but the world will grind to a halt if nobody does the shitty jobs. There's absolutely no possibility of *anyone* living a lovely life if there's not an army of people on the bottom rung of the jobs ladder, emptying the bins and serving the food and cleaning the toilets and driving the buses and entering the data and answering the phone lines.

I do a fairly shitty and low-waged job at the moment - I pick and pack CDs for an internet order firm. Believe me, neither myself nor any of my past or present co-workers wake up in the morning going "gee whiz, another day of packing CDs! This is truly what I want to do with my life and I am blessed to have the opportunity!"

For the most part, we're intelligent people with varying levels of qualification and experience and all sorts of talents and aspirations. We're there for all sorts of reasons. Some are just starting out; some are filling a gap; others have previously been successful but been knocked back down to the bottom by life.

Are we going to flourish in this job? No. It's not that sort of job.

But the bills have to be paid and benefits are supposed to be a last-resort safety-net for people who have no choice, no other way of supporting themselves - not for people who would just prefer to be doing something else and are happy for others to carry them.

There's not one set of people marked "these people can do the crap jobs and like it" and another set of people marked "these people don't have to do the crap jobs". Everyone takes a turn, or two, or three, doing the crap jobs while working towards something better.
( Batsgirl, Tue 7 Apr 2009, 9:30, closed)