I’ve been noticing lately that opportunities in the realm of work seem to need to be purchased. I’m not certain if this has been true for my lifetime as I hadn’t perceived this until recently. Perhaps it has to do with the rise of the accredited institution from which bursts forth a sea of certified experts in any niche imaginable. Perhaps it has to do with the general inflation of our cultural fearfulness regarding non-vetted personal choice and opinion. Whatever the source, I’ve observed recently that advertised work comes with requirements that are not as skills-based as they are blessed by institutions.

And institution blessings come at a price. One that is far too steep for many otherwise qualified workers.

I’m not speaking solely of monetary cost though that is a factor, but of the costs of time and loss of practical experience while attending a degree program. If every job out there from hotel concierge to retail store manager to commercial prep chef requires schooling rather than apprenticeship or life experience, what happens to those valuable hands and minds who can’t get past the robo recruiting screener? What will become of our increasingly polarized culture?

Yes, working one’s way through a program is unquestionably valuable but so is knowledge and experience gained outside the institution walls. This is especially true for those who do not excel within the types of structured learning environments that dominate.

Will you be the person to look at the resume of someone such as this when it’s stacked in the inbox with hundreds of others? Will you hire them based on your personal assessment rather than on the pseudo-guarantee of conferred by letters following a name? I hope so.

And now, to counter the bile generated by the 1%, I give you three of my favourite things in life: quad skates, Jamiroquai Tahuna Breaks (!), and stripey knee socks!
Enjoy.

Thanks Derby News Network!
Tahuna Breaks – Moves on YouTube

Mitt Romney. Poster boy for smug?

I was just reading the news about the current U.S. presidential candidates’ personal wealth and, not unlike a whole lot of other people, found myself getting really, really angry. Uncharacteristically furious, in fact. I’m fairly apolitical, I admit. I avoid newscasters’ heavy breathing and stick to the science and culture headlines as much as possible. But today is different. Today I learned just how rich rich really is.

Being fortunate enough to have been born somewhere in the middle, the realities of the economic bell curve have never kept me up at night. I’ve always believed that although people have zero control over the circumstances into which they are born, those at the both ends of the curve can work like hell to amend those circumstances if they choose and if they are able to access the resources they need (which, I’m well aware, does not happen nearly often enough for the very poor). I believe a society can be fully functional and prosperous with a less steep curve between the very wealthy and the very poor. Hello Canada? Hello Europe? I’m not saying that those at the upper end need to live austerely to make everything rosy but really, how much does one truly need to live well. Luxuriously, even? Tell me. What’s the number?

I know our family’s number. I have a perfectly clear picture of how much we need to make and spend and save in order to live the kind of life we find comforting and safe, healthy, productive, and rewarding. I know this because we live by whatever projects we can find and have to account for every penny if we want to continue to eat. We don’t benefit from regular paychecks nor investment-matching, nor company-sponsored health plans. We have no family legacies. We rely on us. We’ve spent over twenty years each developing our skills and knowledge and relationships in an effort to participate meaningfully in this world and to provide for ourselves and our communities as we grow older.

But whatever, right? You get out what you put in, isn’t that the phrase? We put in 98% of our waking life and 100% of our hope. We’ve put in all our life savings. We put in so much of ourselves that, according to the aforementioned trope, we should be sleeping under a duvet stuffed with cash. But it doesn’t work that way. Clearly, there is no direct ratio for effort and financial reward.

So what level of effort have those whose net worth could power a small nation put in? My deep anger has risen from watching us work so achingly hard and come out at the end of each year further and further behind where we started. And yet we redouble our efforts as if that’s the answer. We “don’t just work harder, we work smarter.” We “follow our bliss.” We “spend responsibly.” So tell me, how is it that one person can be worth over $200 million (and seek to be the people’s representative) and feel good about it?

THAT. IS. SO. MUCH. MONEY.

I am fairly certain that some clever designer is out there right now creating a brilliant infographic to illustrate just how much $200 million really is. I would do it but I’m too busy trying to make a living. Sorry.

Yeah, this is an emotionally charged rant. I get that. I’m not presenting unbiased, supported facts. I know. That’s what the news is supposed to be for. And it’s true, no one said life was fair. But dammit, the harder we work and the less we are able to support ourselves continually over time, the more unhealthy, unmotivated, and unable to contribute we become. This is eating us alive. We are becoming a societal liability despite our best efforts. And that’s not good for anyone on the curve.

I’ve recently been digging deep into my personality type and tearing my life a new one. It’s so bloody freeing. Give it a try sometime at Keirsey.com. In the meantime, please enjoy the insights of the lovely Miss OpheliaDagger.

OpheliaDagger waxes poetic about her Myers-Briggs INTJ personality type on the YouTube.

Remember the Hypertext Novel? (Keeners will know that my publishing partner Kathryn Pope’s early versions of After the Strawberry were posted as a Wiki and were I one with a suspicious mind, I’d say she’s been time-travelling again.) As we rearrange the bits and as the economic forces push, pull, and react, brave authors and publishers are stepping to the fore. Hear all about it on this week’s Spark podcast:

Behold! Author Paul La Farge, his publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and their creation: the immersive text hyperromance novel, Luminous Airplanes.

Listen to the entire Spark #168 podcast at CBC.ca

(And please Nora, tell me how it is one makes a living by being curious. I’ve been at it for free for too damned long.)