Do Lawyers Work Harder Than Movers?
I’m just now getting to read Lisa Schiffren’s contribution on the Corner to the growing overclass revolt taking the American right by storm:
The doctors, lawyers, engineers, executives, serious small-business owners, top salespeople, and other professionals and entrepreneurs who make this country run work considerably harder than pretty much anyone else (including most of the chattering class, and all politicians). They are not robber barons, or trust-fund babies, or plutocrats, or even celebrities. They are mostly the meritocrats who worked hard in high school and got into the better colleges and grad schools, where they studied while others partied. They pushed through grueling hours and unpleasant “up or out” policies in their twenties and thirties at top law firms, banks, hospitals, and businesses to earn salaries in the solid six figures (or low seven) today — in their peak earning years. Their work ethic is prodigious, and, as Tigerhawk points out, in their spare time they sit on the boards of most of the complex charities and arts institutions that provide aid and pay for culture in America. No group of people contribute more to their community. And now the president, who followed a path sort of like that, and who claims that his wife’s former six-figure income was a result of precisely such qualifications and efforts, is demonizing them. More problematically, he is penalizing their success and giving them very clear incentives to ratchet back on productivity.
When Lisa Schiffren was born, she received one of the rarest winning tickets in the genetic-geographic-historical lottery -- she lives in the United States in an era of incredible wealth and luxury, is well-educated, and, apparently, was able to find a job where you get paid to write staggeringly ignorant crap. There is so much so wrong with what she wrote that criticizing it is a little like playing Supermarket Sweep -- so many options, yet so little time! But here goes.
The first point I'd like to make has to do with how you evaluate how "hard" people work. Unlike Schiffren, I think it's worthwhile to differentiate amount and cost of effort, and then consider the benefits received for effort expended. I think work is hardest when you get the lowest payoff for the total cost of your effort (payoff - (units of effort * cost of effort)). I think it really sucks to do mind-numbing work (high psychic cost of effort) for low pay. Now let's consider a critical factor that shifts this equation significantly in meritocrats' favor.
Lawyers, doctors, engineers, other "meritocrats" are not merely compensated for their work with money. Most of those people are intrinsically motivated to do the work they do. They get some psychic benefits from waking up every morning and lawyering or doctoring or engineering. Sure, being an entry level lawyer in an up-or-out firm involves long hours, but you're looking ahead to more control over your work and tasks that are more personally rewarding. The middle- and upper-classes, especially as you move up the pay scale, are not only concerned with pay but whether they enjoy what they do. This makes the cost-benefit differential between lawyers and movers even greater. Not only do lawyers make more money, they also enjoy lawyering, or at least enjoy it more than movers enjoy straining backs to move sofas. Meritocrats get dollars and psychic benefits; movers get fewer dollars and a lifetime of back pain.
My other big criticism has to do with entitlement. There's this sense that if you're in a position to earn a high salary, you've earned it. Bullshit. As I suggested at the outset, the productivity our labor is largely due to a random draw upon birth. Some of us are gifted with parents who can afford education and mind that can make use of that education. Sure, we make investments of effort and time to reap the rewards, but it's still mostly luck. I studied hard in school, but not as hard as others who will earn less than I will in less fulfilling jobs. I worked student jobs, but never had to wait tables, mow lawns, or donate sperm to pay for school. I am profoundly lucky, though not profoundly deserving.
Conservatives need to check themselves before they wreck themselves. This whole, "I work harder than you" thing needs to stop. People making more than $250,000 can afford to pay like 5% higher taxes on every dollar they make beyond $250,000. They can afford that more easily than the poor can afford no health care, or the residents of Florida can afford global warming. And no one can afford more of this inane bitching.
Posted via web from Mhm.
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