01:54:18 pm on
Thursday 28 Mar 2024

He is Right
AJ Robinson

Recently, I heard a political figure talking. I can’t bring myself to mention his name. I find him an idiot. I won’t give him any free advertising.

This politician said that if people weren’t rich it was their own fault. I thought about it. I loathed, as I am to say it, he may be right. It depends on your choices.

If you want to be rich, you certainly should not become a teacher. I saw a group of teachers asked if they used their own money to buy school supplies. They all raised their hands, yes.

Wasting your money on frivolous items, such as school supplies, is no way to get rich. Did the teachers work more than forty hours a week on their job or had a second job to make ends meet? Again, nearly all raised their hands, yes. If they can’t make a decent living at their main job, they’re in the wrong line of business.

Being a police officer or firefighter is definitely not going to make you rich. After all, you’re doing a job that people praise, but aren’t willing to pay a decent wage; that’s a recipe for disaster in the moneymaking enterprise. You want to avoid military service. The enemy shots at you, tries blow you up and employers ignore when you come home. Risking your life for a small salary and working in a high stress job with terrible medical benefits is no way of getting rich.

I worked as a civil engineer. I chose that line of work because I loved the mathematics of it and the chance to create things. It is definitely not a way to become rich, not unless you’re the top man or own the company. No, long hours sifting over papers, doing calculations, staring at computer screens or striving to obtain permits is not a path to riches. It’s long, hard work and the big pay goes only to the top people.

Working to create and build is not the fast track for wealthy. It works for some, such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, but not for many others.

When it comes to the medical field, be a doctor or some sort of specialist, but never a nurse. It doesn’t matter if you want to be a caregiver or you feel driven to the prospects of one-on-one contact with patients, nurses don’t make squat. Don’t be a nurse if you want to be a millionaire.

If you want to be rich, here’s what to do. Marry into money or inherit it. Work a job that’s truly vital to our national interest, such as in Congress that becomes close to lobbyists or get a tax break qua subsidy to give you an unfair advantage. Oh, sorry, make that an “incentive” to “level playing field.” 

Avoid the other loser occupations, such as teacher, engineer or nurse. After all, if such jobs were truly important, they’d pay better. What do teachers, nurses, firefighters, EMTs and the military do that really cares about?

It’s not as if these are important jobs, right?

Combining the gimlet-eye of Philip Roth with the precisive mind of Lionel Trilling, AJ Robinson writes about what goes bump in the mind, of 21st century adults. Raised in Boston, with summers on Martha's Vineyard, AJ now lives in Florida. Working, again, as an engineeer, after years out of the field due to 2009 recession and slow recovery, Robinson finds time to write. His liberal, note the small "l," sensibilities often lead to bouts of righteous indignation, well focused and true. His teen vampire adventure novel, "Vampire Vendetta," will publish in 2020. Robinson continues to write books, screenplays and teleplays and keeps hoping for that big break.

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