In a message dated 6/19/00 9:14:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> John touched on something interesting, as did Deborah.  Museums require
>  employees with certain educational backgrounds.  Yet they often seem
>  unwilling to pay for it.  Perhaps the only way this will improve is if the
>  people with those qualifications refuse to sell their services for less
than
>  an acceptable wage.  Just call me an idealist...

Whinging about wages rears it's ugly head every now and then and every time I
think "Maybe people will learn" but then again, just call me an idealist...

In an ideal world, there would be jobs for anyone willing to go through the
time and expense of getting a higher degree in any subject whatsoever. And
your wages would be proportional to the amount that you put yourself in debt
getting those degrees. Better yet, the State would be obligated to cover the
cost of a degree as putting people's education would come far ahead of the
overinflated national defence budget.

But we don't live in an ideal world. People slave away for years getting
letters past their name that amount to little more than minimum wage while
high school flunkies that happen to be computer programming geniuses or get
into a labor union make more than we could ever hope to imagine.

It's a cruel, cruel world out there and talentless sods with one good idea
are getting rich while those of us who paid our dues in academia eat our
Ramen noodles until payday when we can splurge for McDonalds but all the
while saying how much we love our jobs and wouldn't dare get caught selling
out to a heartless corporate empire - even if it meant not having to
refinance those loans yet again. Our grandchildren might be stuck paying off
the last pennies to Uncle Sam but for now, we are content eating our Ramen
noodles in our own little utopia of poverty.

Ask anyone in the museum profession that has worked there for any length of
time and they would say without hesistation that if museums could afford to
pay people a living wage, they would. You want to know how much a simple
display case exhibit costs? Try $50,000. For one, count them one exhibit and
that's if you are getting it cheap and sing a sob story to the exhibit
designers how your museum is still paying off construction debt and you need
this exhibit to attract more people to squeeze money out of so that you can
build more exhibits and start the vicious cycle all over again.

Talk to the grants writer who is up at 11:52pm trying desperately to make one
final edit in the grant proposal due by midnight that will allow the museum
to pay their employees for another year of eating Ramen noodles instead of
sending them out to the job world to fend for themselves.

For every one person that gets paid enough to live on, there are 50 people
eeking out an existance at museums who desperately want to pay them what they
are worth but are more concerned about keeping the water flowing, the lights
on and the doors open.

Perhaps instead of going for the masters in ancient Chinese Pre-Celtic art,
someone on this list will see this post and instead get an MBA in non-profit
organizations or in arts management and find a way to save musem employees
from the fate of Ramen noodles. Afterall, museums are just as good as what we
put into them. If we complain about the menu and don't work to change it,
we're still stuck with Ramen noodles.

Cynically,

Deb Fuller

Disclaimer - This post is in no way meant to demean Ramen noodles, an
excellent food source that has been found worthy enough by the Japanese
people to errect an entire museum in it's honour.

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