Read the rest of my post. Models are paid great sums because they add value. If having top models wear your stuff on the runway didn’t help sell clothes (or at least a brand), they wouldn’t be paid as they are.
In short, they have worth not because they are paid large sums, but because they add significant value to a business enterprise – value which is evidenced by the sums they are paid. It’s not the “having money” part that gives them worth – I’d agree that most idle-rich heirs are pretty worthless – but rather the “adding value” part.
There’s an amusing editorial in today’s (11/18) New York Times. Entitled “Stuff and Nonsense” (by David Brooks), it takes a poke or two at high fashion models.
He seems to sympathize with most of you in general, and Jonathan Chance in particular, about the relative worthlessness of high fashion models.
But, as far as I’m concerned, the models shown on that first Victoria’s Secret special knocked me out. They were the most beautiful, most sensual, group of women I have ever had the pleasure of looking at.
And yes, I’ve been told they’re all drug-using, hopelessly addicted, and the quintessentially dumb broads of the Universe. But as eye candy, you just can’t beat 'em.
Oh, the David Brooks editorial goes on to talk about a woman’s magazine called “Lucky” that some of the ladies here might be interested in. It’s a no-nonsense fashion magazine.
Fashion models worthless? Bah! They bring decent masturbation material to those who cannot afford ACTUAL porn. No, the most worthless job in the known job universe has to be fashion reporter, whoever brought that up first was spot-on. Although Pope is a close second.
There are plenty of worthless jobs in this world. Fashion model, fashion designer, fashion reporter- all definitely worthless, at least in my opinion, and it seems I’m not alone. But there are other jobs that seem equally worthless to me, although some might disagree. For one, sportscasters. They’re crucial if you’re listening to a game on the radio, but what about television? Do I need some guy to tell me all about what I just saw happen?
Greeters in various restaurants and retail establishments also strike me as pretty useless. They stand near the door all day smiling and exchanging brief pleasantries with shoppers. That’s nice and all, but I have never based my decison to shop or eat at a particular place on whether or not they employ greeters.
Women at car shows are also pretty worthless. Ther job is to stand next to cars in skimpy dresses. And this has what to do with automobiles? I went to a car show recently with my boyfriend and actually talked to one of these women. It was sort of funny- whenever she noticed anyone looking at her, she was posing and smiling, but otherwise she just stood there looking bored and lost. She was trying to ‘break into modelling’ and this is the job her agent had gotten her. She even agreed it was a total waste of time. It seemed a shame to me, because she was a nice person who seemed fairly intelligent, and could probably be doing any number of things that did not involve standing next to cars in cheap hooker clothes.
I’m also going to say that porn star is a worthless job. I know there are a few that are famous and are making a lot of money,(not that this is any criteria of worth) but it seems that the majority of them are just interchangeable masses of hair and breasts. And it’s not like their careers are all that long, either. You don’t see many old porn stars.
Gossip columnists also strike me as worthless, but apparently there are tons of people out there who just love the living shit out of them, so I guess my concept of worth doesn’t mesh very well with the majority of my fellow humans’.
Sorry, ratty, but I cannot agree with this one. I’m a football fan who knows little about football and owns a small TV. If the announcers weren’t there to replay things and point out what actually happened, all I’d see is a bunch of guys falling over. I know there is more to the game than that, and thankfully they are there to show me.
Don’t any of you remember the anouncer-less football game.
I’m pretty sure it was in the Howard Coselle era, and he, of course, was outraged over the idea. It was too ridiculous.
But I thought it was a great concept. Until I watched. Turned it off before the end of the first half. Boring beyond belief.
Do you announcer haters actually turn down the sound? If not, do you totally ignore the announcing? (Even when Mary Curillo - my favorite sports caster - is announcing tennis?)
ratty, in my experience restaurant greeters are there to seat you at your table for the waitstaff. I’ve never run across any in an eating establishment that did nothing.
The ‘greeters’ that stand at the door in retail stores are actually a part of loss-prevention. They’re there to establish contact with everyone that walks in the store, and keep an eye on things. It discourages theft.
I’m gonna piss many of you off by saying that I think a lot of you are so self absorbed you denigrate other people’s jobs as worthless compared to yours.
For example, the Pope.
He’s the spiritual leader of over a billion Catholics worldwide. He is the leader of my church, my religion. If his performance doesn’t measure up to your standards, could it be you don’t know the whole story or what his roles are?
In WWII, for example, Pope Pius the twelfth saved many many jews from execution by the Nazis - and this comes from the Jewish leaders themselves - not some half-assed wanna-be expose writer with an axe to grind.
Before he became the Pope, John Paul helped rid his native country, Poland, from the yoke of comunism.
Have any of you done anything as “worthless” as Pius and John Paul?
Maybe you ought to step back and look with kinder eyes on your fellow human beings.
Your meaning wasn’t lost on me. “Adding value” - isn’t that the same as “generating more money”? It’s a cat chasing its tail. You’re assuming the money loop has meaning, has an inherent worth, and I’m saying it doesn’t (except in the eyes of people who’ve made it their life’s work).
Oh horsehit. He didn’t stop the export of Jews until at least 24 hrs AFTER the Nazis broke down the walls of the ghetto. And he sat on his sweet little ass in a warm, clean, well stocked fuckin palace while several MILLION Jews starved to death or were murdered in concentration camps without saying ONE FUCKING WORD in protest to the Nazi government.
And don’t even get me started on the conditions in the Roman ghetto. Those were the “Pope’s Jews” and he was free to starve them if he so chose.
Pius is roasting next to Leni if God has any sense of justice.
By that standard, most successful entrepreneurs are “worthless.” Generating value is meaningful – it creates jobs, improves our standard of living, and generally makes life better for everyone.
Nope. Teaching children is meaningful, saving lives is meaningful, putting out fires is meaningful. Running a successful business that succeeds because it provides a service or product that people need, that improves their lives - that’s meaningful.
Fooling people into spending exhorbitant sums of money for bits of fabric and feathers? Stupid, though apparently quite lucrative.
Are people also being “fooled” into buying Ferrarri’s, Porches, SUV’s, Hummers, etc.? Those things are expensive bits of metal, rubber, fabric and plastic (no feathers, sadly). By your lights, such purchases are probably absurd; for those who buy them, they make perfect sense.
