# All Honest Careers are Equally Important **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094 "2004-04-15T02:14:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/21 "2004-04-15T16:42:00Z")
> [@furt](#): > > "e-commerce direct marketing " (reaching for the nearest shotgun) “Where?” ---
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/22 "2004-04-15T16:47:23Z")
> [@chrissysissystar](#): > > Are you nice to the wait staff at restaurants? Do you have a smile for the person taking your money at the Wal-Mart? I apologize if this is a bit of a threadjack, but the answer for me is **yes**. I have tremendous sympathy for anyone whose job description includes being nauseatingly nice in the face of rude or downright abusive customers. I always look these people in the eye, smile, say “thank you,” joke with them a bit if the guy ahead of me in line is being a jackass, etc. The world’s got enough crap in it without people adding to it over petty nonsense like waiting 5 extra minutes in a line. There’s just no excuse for the abuse suffered by retail workers, yet it happens constantly. I’ve seen the things I do put a smile on the face of an otherwise miserable cashier or waitperson more than once. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/23 "2004-04-15T17:57:07Z")
> [@TaxGuy](#): > > IBut the simple fact of the matter down here in the real world is that social workers and teachers are paid beans while pro athletes are paid a bunch of money. And you know what this means? It means that we (meaning “society” or “our culture” or what-have-you) value the contribution of pro athletes more than we value the contributions of teachers and social workers. We have decided that we receive more from pro athletes than we receive from social workers and trash men and teachers and store clerks, so we give pro athletes more in return. But that doesn’t mean that “society” is corrrect. “Society” has its priorities all screwed up. ---
**Author:** ![TaxGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TaxGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaxGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/24 "2004-04-15T18:44:04Z")
**kung fu lola** : The danger here is that some people go from your position (which is an opinion you have every right to hold) to the completely stupid conclusion that we should somehow put a cap on pro athlete’s salaries and make sure all social workers get paid six figures, a position I hope you can see is hopelessly stupid. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/25 "2004-04-15T22:18:12Z")
> [@kung fu lola](#): > > But that doesn’t mean that “society” is corrrect. “Society” has its priorities all screwed up. Exactly. Society takes our nurses and teachers, etc., for granted. These people don’t have a high profile job and they don’t have a cute ass. Therefore, they are not as “valuable.” That is screwed up. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/26 "2004-04-16T06:34:14Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I agree, all jobs are equally important. My brother in law looks down his nose at me because he’s an almighty doctor and I’m a mere engineer, but if he makes a mistake one person might die, a mistake I make might kill people by the hundreds. Supply and demand makes differences in salaries, but it wasn’t for the guy that makes boots for the electrical linemen, Mr. Smarty Pants Doctor wouldn’t have the electricity to work his magical instruments. I’m an engineer also, and with previous employers, if I did my job right, people died. That’s the pits of beng in the defense biz… ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/27 "2004-04-16T10:03:13Z")
My job’s an honest one. Well, sort of. My main job’s in advertising and my weekend job’s in religion. Which one’s more honest is a real toss-up at times. Still, I enjoy them both. But are they important? No, and the only people my work is important to are people doing jobs that are similarly unimportant. That won’t stop me from cashing my paychecks, though. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/28 "2004-05-23T03:42:52Z")
> [@Scribble](#): > > How much you get paid doesn’t necessarily have much to do with the relative importance of your job. There are lots of social workers who get paid dirtballs, and there are star athletes who take home millions of US dollars each year. How much you earn is much more strongly linked to demand for your services than it is to the importance of what you do. There are lots of important jobs for which there’s remarkably little demand (I know a guy who does research into malaria control. He can tell you all about the appalling lack of demand for good work on keeping malaria rates down.) On the other hand, there are lots of relatively unimportant jobs for which there’s tons of demand (think of Brittany Spears or just about any supermodel.) Supermodels, athletes and other celebrities create demand for products and services which in tern provide more jobs. They also provide enjoyment for millions of people. Cameron Diaz doesn’t get paid millions just because she has a nice ass and a pleasing manner about her. Just because someone is doing something that helps people does not mean that it’s an important job. [kung fu lola]But that doesn’t mean that “society” is corrrect. “Society” has its priorities all screwed up.[/kung fu lola] Who are you to decide what societies priorities should be? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/29 "2004-05-23T03:58:52Z")
**START** is a communist! * * * Better Dead than Red! But better Laid than Dead! ---
**Author:** ![Marathon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Marathon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marathon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094/30 "2004-05-23T04:07:32Z")
> [@furt](#): > > [How soon they forget.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=51270&highlight=telemarketer) That thread surely must have been linked to dozens of times by now, but this was my first time reading it. It’s genius. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-honest-careers-are-equally-important/240094.md?page=1)