I recently had an article pop up on my feed titled “17 Low-Effort, High Paying Jobs That Have Me Reconsidering My Career Plan”
The article is full of people talking about how much they make and how little work they actually do. Play video games, answer a few emails, go read a book, and make $70k a year.
I read it and wasn't hopeful to get these jobs, nor was I particularly envious (maybe a little) of these individuals. What I really felt was angry.
Again, not at the people who have these jobs, but at the companies and a system that has no idea how to value “work.” I say this because we are always told that hard work and effort are the keys to success, but that just isn't true.
If hard work and effort were valued, the hardest jobs would pay more. Even accounting for the amount of skill and training involved, we are finding time and time again that this isn't true. Easy jobs with little required training can pay a lot if you are lucky enough to get them, and other jobs requiring a lot of training and a lot of hard work get paid very little. Teachers are a perfect example of this requiring a college education and having to deal with today's monstrous youth and barely making enough to survive.
It's gotten to the point that I look at this article and doubt it's sincerity. We're dangling a proverbial carrot in front of everyone and saying, “See! It's possible to make a lot of money without a lot of work if you just look hard enough!” It isn't the CEO who makes several millions a year's fault, it isn't the fault of an education system that crams more students into a classroom than any teacher can reasonably handle, its our fault for not being able to find these niche positions.
I yearn for a true meritocracy where pay is based on what you contribute, and pay is based on the level of effort and skill it takes to donyour job. The arbitrary nature and value of different jobs and services is just incredibly frustrating.