DANGER: Post of only moderate coherence is coming. It’s Monday and I’m not feeling terribly intellectual at the moment.

First, they came for the lawyers, and I did nothing. Then, they came for the auto workers, and I did nothing. Who will be there when they come for me?

(Removes tongue from cheek)

Okay, in all seriousness, welcome to the world of supply and demand. We have a lot of lawyers - only the best ones are going to make serious money, and the rest probably shouldn’t assume six figures worth of student loans. This is true of many fields, mine included. I make about mid-five figures right now, which is on the low end of average for my field; this makes sense since Microsoft technicians are a dime a dozen right now. Instead of forming an MCSE union of some sort, though, I’m diversifying, learning skills that are a little more in demand, such as how to maintain Asterisk phone systems and learning more and more about how to manage Linux servers.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel for the auto workers. They work hard. So do roofers and gardeners, and they make about 1/10th of what your average UAW person makes. The difference in wages is easy to explain, though - anyone can be a roofer or a gardener. Being an auto worker is a skilled job, just like being a mechanic. You have to know something. Trouble is, nowadays, we’re not the only people in the world that know something. People in India know stuff, too. Same goes with China, Japan, Europe, most of Southeast Asia, and pretty much the entire Western Hemisphere. We could wall off our borders, throw down tariffs as far as the eye can see, and just buy American, but that would mean DVD players that cost 10 times as much, winter produce that costs 5 times as much, and all for the same quality that we’re getting from China. China would also stop buying our debt, too - if you think your mortgage rates are high now, imagine what they’ll look like if you have to compete with the federal government when you go to borrow money?

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