Join the Club

The 100K club, that is. Wouldn't you like to? Of course, if you work in the public sector (I do) then apparently it's everyone's business if you make more than 100K a year. (Before taxes, and including benefits, don't forget.) I have no worries about being on this list. What I do is not worth 100K a year. Don't get me wrong, I work hard (um, when I'm not on mat leave, that is) but I happily leave at the end of the day and spend time with my family, and forget about work until the next day. Yes, there are probably other people who could do what I do.

But for the higher ups at the Region and other local government who ARE on the list, I would argue that there are very FEW people who could do what they do. Managing people is not easy. Managing the entire Region, with all its unions and the public scrutiny, is a big job. Higher ups are definitely putting in more than 35-40 hours a week, and there's the whole "walk a mile in their shoes" thing. Plus, they're not in the stratosphere - the highest local government earners are in the high 100K-low 200K range, which I actually find to be quite reasonable. My director made the list, and so did my manager (barely). These guys are both professional engineers. They have training and knowledge that a lot of people don't. I will never move up into their jobs, I'm not qualified. They work hard and deserve their salaries.

What is completely UN-reasonable is the fact that there are people on this list making over a million dollars a year. Even over TWO million dollars a year! The hell??? My reaction is not because of the downturn in the economy. I get pissed about this every time this list comes out. There is NO WAY that the CEO of Ontario Power Generation is worth that much. What in the heck is he doing, casting fantasic spells that are keeping dragons from frying the province to a crisp?? Maybe "CEO of OPG" is just his mild-mannered ego, and his office is really located on the Hellmouth, and he spends his nights saving the world from demons and vampires while the rest of us sleep in blissful oblivion. (No Buffy fans out there? Just me then? Okay.) His trusty sidekick, "CEO of OMERS" started off a little geeky, but really came into his own in Season 4 when he started the whole practicing witchcraft thing.... (Seriously? Only me, huh?)

Nope. Nuh-uh. You cannot convince me that people are worth this much money. MAYBE if you work in the private sector and are responsible for making this kind of money for your investors, you deserve a piece of the pie. Maybe. (And don't even get me started on AIG executives. I'm just not going to go there with companies receiving handouts.) I am happy with how my OMERS pension fund is performing, but I just can't find 2 million dollars worth of happiness in my heart. Sour grapes? I'm pretty sure not.

I agree with Dwight Duncan that the number of 100K employees is not such a big deal, especially given inflation. What percentage of those people are in the lower range? Looks like a lot, from what I can see. Where we need to take a good look is at those in the 1M club. Maybe even the 500K club. But 100K? Not so much.

(Season 4 Buffy! Those of you who have finished reading The Grapes of Wrath, go watch! The rest of you, back to the book.)

Made in...hmmmmm.

All this talk about the big three car manufacturers looking for bailout money, and most recently, Chrysler's threat to move their whole operation out of Canada unless they get X amount of money and the CAW employees take a $20/hour pay cut has me thinking. We have had lots of parts manufacturers in this area. Many closed their doors in the past few years, and the few left are cutting further and further back on staff and hours. Now, I feel badly for anyone who loses their job. But you have to admit that there's a certain... irony? Schadenfreude? (Not sure what the word is I'm looking for here...) in the situation. See, lots of people around here, whom, I'm assuming, work or did work for these parts makers have bumper stickers on their cars that read Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign! (These are always on Fords and Chrysler products, by the way, not on Toyotas, some of which are actually assembled right here in Cambridge, but that's another post for another day.)

Where the irony comes in is when I see three cars all sporting this bumper sticker parked in a row. In the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Now I get that for some people, Wal-Mart is a necessary evil (or a guilty pleasure!). I'm sure there are some people who would prefer to only buy things made in Canada who shop there because they are barely making ends meet as it is. But maybe don't drive the car with anti-buying-foreign-sentiment proudly displayed on it when you go. Hmmm'kay?

I'm guilty. I don't look for a Made in Canada label. I do patronize my local farmer's market and small, local specialty shops and bakeries, but I also shop Wal-Mart and Costco. Lucky for our family, the loss of manufacturing jobs will not affect us directly. I still feel for the people it does affect, but I don't think the situation will change, and I don't think government handouts to private industry are the way to go. These are growing pains. Have you read The Grapes of Wrath? It's a good picture of the growing pains suffered as North America moved from the agricultural age to the industrial age. Now we're moving from the industrial age to the knowledge age. Can't stop it, and bailouts to private industry are only delaying the inevitable. Manufacturing in North America is no longer smart business, sad but true. How much better would it be to use that bailout money to help people support their families, and help them re-train for the knowledge industry? A lot, I think.

(I also have some thoughts about how ironic it is that unions were formed as a result of some of the issues arising as we moved into the industrial age, but that they may also have sped its passing in the last 20 years or so. But those thoughts are still percolating, and my arm is sore from one-handed typing while Jake sleeps in my other arm. So that's all you get today. Go read The Grapes of Wrath!)

Happy Inauguration Day!

Today, just after noon, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Historic? Well, yes, I guess if you're the first-of-anything kind of president, you're assured a place in the history books by default. Personally, I'm hoping he makes it for more than that. Happy day? I sincerely hope so. He has four years in which to try and live up to the promise of this day. Am I pleased that he is the new U.S. president? Yes. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised when our neighbours to the south voted in their first African-American president. But to tell the truth, I would have been happy with any Democratic president, after George W. Democrats seeming to be about as "left" as those south of the 49th get, and I'm a little more left than centre myself.

But talk about a weight on your shoulders! I sincerely hope that President Obama has a great routine for relieving stress, because whoa! Commentators everywhere are pinning the hopes of the free world on this poor guy! Let him worry about solving some of the messes in his own country, and then let him shoulder Atlas' burden, okay? There has been some talk in the local media (I haven't heard any U.S. media on the topic of Obama at all, so I don't know) about whether Obama will get a little more leeway than some presidents in his performance in the first little bit, since so many people have such high hopes for him. Um, I'm pretty sure that when a guy has so many hopes pinned on him that you can't tell what colour suit he's wearing, it's not most people's nature to cut him slack. Quite the opposite, in my opinion. But I don't think I've ever followed a political messiah before, so YMMV.

When the clock struck noon, the commentator I was listening to (via radio, Jake and I were in the Jeep. I can only assume that Owen was raptly watching this "defining moment of a generation", as one put it, at daycare) quietly mentioned the fact that although he had not yet taken the oath of office, Barack Obama was now officially the President. I liked that. In Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon, there is a line that "God, the law, and the sun make a king, not the coronation", and I liked thinking that the sun makes a President - for better or worse, the American people made their choice, and now it's in greater hands. Personally, I think it was a very good choice, but that we won't know for four years how historic a choice it was. I'm wishing President Obama well, (and praying that he makes it safely through his four years!)

Now, if only we knew who was going to be in charge up here to welcome him on his first official foreign visit! Who knows who's going to be dealing with the messes in this country? I can only guarantee this: it won't be someone half as charismatic!