Working 50 hours

Not so many postings recently--in order to pay for the European extravaganza, I'm working again. Not very gainfully, but when you're laid off in middle age, finding another position at the same level is nigh on to impossible. So, it's four ten hour days at one place, and one 10 hour day at another. Both employers probably get shortchanged on occasion.

Working two or three jobs to sustain the American Dream is not uncommon. OLGS has consulting gigs, summer school, and many other oppotunities to earn more money. I don't know any academic who doesn't take advantage of this.

Our long hours allow us to take European vacations, buy coffee at $9.00/pound, and live in a big house--a beat-up house, but a palace nevertheless--and represent a choice. I don't complain, and both jobs are fun and interesting. But, there are so many Americans who have to work two and three horrible jobs, at minimum wage, simply to keep a place to live and feed their kids. They have no choice. And because our pals in Washington are slaves to corporate lobbyists, the situation of those truly hardworking folks is probably not going to get any better. It's shameful that we are represented by these clowns who have somehow convinced at least some of the American people that we have absolutely no obligation, and that there's no cost. to having a resentful, economically fearful, underclass. Shameful.

So I don't whine too much, but I post less frequently.