Things I've Noticed

Happy Holidays and "Non-Christian Indian-American Christmas"

I've been in Cleveland, busy with family, shopping, and eating.  We had a 65 degree day two days ago.  It was amazing.  Anyway, Santa brought me some cool stuff and I subsidized Santa a lot too.  I've officially designated the third day after Christmas as "Non-Christian Indian-American Christmas".  It's great because you get to buy presents while others are making returns and you get to take advantage of all the sales.  Most Indians like good deals and bargains, so it all works out well.  Procrastination for Christmas shopping becomes less of an issue because you get a few extra days to buy presents.  Plus, you can see what others didn't get for Christmas from friends who celebrate on Christmas day.  Then you can save the day and get them what they really wanted.  Instead of being a Secret Santa, you can be a Savior Santa, (not to be confused with Jesus Christ).  I suppose non-Christians who are not of Indian descent could also join in, but I don't know enough non-Christian non-Indians to spread the idea well.

Well, it's time to drink some late-night tea.  Look for a real post after the new year, 2009.  I have some great resolutions planned out that I'm just itching to break.

+ Atul 

Advertising Because Times Are Tough, But What Should Be Advertised?

Times are tough with the whole financial crisis, job losses, and an auto industry on the edge of bankruptcy, (although they just got loan money today). Accordingly, I’ve started some major advertising on Things I’ve Noticed to help defray TypePad’s monthly fees for the blogging service. I use both Google text ads and Adify’s high-falutin’ animated ads. (Feel free to click all you want, especially if you’re interested in what’s in the ad.) I figured out that if traffic to Things I’ve Noticed goes from 40 visitors a day to 100,000 visitors a day, I could live off of my blog, but that will never happen unless the top 50 blogs in the world start linking to me. I don’t see that in my future, so I have to continue working in a real job.

I have been noticing what’s getting advertised in these spaces on my site. With Google, I have little control but with Adify, I can approve or reject campaigns. I consider whether I want to advertise products or services that aren’t in keeping with my philosophies, or are too cheesy, even for this blog. For instance, I didn’t want to advertise meat products, so I rejected the McDonald’s campaign.  The specific advertising on my Google ads depends on what I write about, but I can't single out companies, only topic areas.  Although, I’m a very very small time advertising venue without complete control, I will do what I can.

But I wonder about ads accepted by major newspapers, magazines, and websites. Sometimes they advertise things like police radar camera license plate blocking sprays or products that enlarge certain body parts even when they know that these products are illegal and/or don’t work. I’m surprised that they don’t want to protect their readers from fraud or their own image by rejecting such ads. They just look the other way as long as the advertising revenue is coming in. It would be nice if they would verify the credibility of the advertisers before placing such ads in their publications or on their websites. I guess, in the end, it’s all about the money. That’s why I’m forcing readers of T.I.N. to endure ads that take up significant screen space, and I apologize... but I gotta eat.

+ Atul

Quick Quote on Hair

"When it comes to hair, we are each our own worst critic."

+ Atul

Salaries for The Various Professions Are All Messed Up

With all the controversy and negative news out there right now, it’s time to lighten up with my latest post. I’ve been thinking about this a long time and with all the talk about UAW salaries and the Detroit auto companies, my post is somewhat pertinent. The whole idea behind this post is that society is somewhat screwed up in terms of what we pay people to work in various professions. If you really think about who deserves higher salaries and who deserves lower salaries, we’re often backwards.

Why should somebody who plays a fun sport make millions of dollars while a person who cleans toilets makes minimum wage? Sure, the athlete has rare special skills and trains hard to stay fit, (except for most pro baseball players), but what about compensating for unpleasantness? Janitors should get extra money for having to deal with smelly, unsanitary conditions. Assembly line workers deserve some extra cash for the monotony of their jobs. I would argue that more people can do the supposedly difficult white collar jobs than we realize. But many of theses potential candidates, ones don’t get the opportunity to get an education, (or don’t make the effort), get stuck with low low salaries, (at places like Walmart). I suppose the influx of illegal aliens has allowed salaries to go lower in certain job areas, but then, without them, we wouldn’t have enough Americans willing to do the work at the going rates.

And yes, there’s stress on the job from high level white-collar positions, but what about the stress of not having enough money to live? One area that I think is extremely under-compensated is in the arts. Perhaps it’s because so many people like to do it, but it is difficult to do it well. For instance, can you draw or sculpt your friend in a way that would be recognizable? I especially feel sorry for the people in emerging market countries that are skilled artisans and only get paid pennies to make beautiful handcrafted pieces out of wood and stone. If they could emigrate here, they could make a thousand times more money than they make in their home countries.

I am biased, but I think some doctors (in specialties), have historically been paid too much. (Keep in mind that some of my best friends are doctors). Some have specialized skills at surgery or have rare knowledge from research, but many of the disciplines seem to just have to memorize a lot of stuff. So do history majors; and they hardly get paid anything. I know that medicine can be a life-or-death matter so it’s important enough to hire the best. But I would argue that high salaries often draw the most greedy, and not necessarily the most qualified. I would argue that a lot of the salaries we get are the product of the clout that people in certain professions have had. Think of the American Medical Association and the Teamsters as organizations that stood up for their workers to fetch them higher salaries and more benefits.

The other people that (used to) make out like bandits are the ones who control the money… such as investment bankers. But, recent events have confirmed that the insatiability and creativity of some of them led to their own undoing. (Unfortunately it also led to the economic undoing of the rest of us.) On the other hand, engineers and scientists study a discipline with abstract concepts that few people can handle and yet they allow companies to underpay them for their skill. In general, white collar workers don’t stand up for themselves. They become slaves to their desire to get promoted, working extra hours without extra pay. And then, when one person does it, then companies expect everybody to do it. For the highest salaries, that leaves the people in charge, like executives, who can basically give themselves big raises and golden parachutes since they are friends with the members of the Boards of Directors. I would really like to get to a point in my career where if I really screw up, I’ll make millions when I’m asked to leave. That would be truly undeserved.

Salaries are serious business. I know I’ve probably offended individuals from many professions, but these are my thoughts meant more in a humorous light than in a serious light.

+ Atul