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Thecher compensation is a bit above the national average and they have long vacations. What is also very meaningful to notice is that due to high income taxes,
by pasiaj 11y ago
Thecher compensation is a bit above the national average and they have long vacations.
What is also very meaningful to notice is that due to high income taxes, income redistribution, and generally flatter pay scale overall compared to most other countries, a corporate lawyer isn't that much better off than a teacher.
- jkyle 11y ago> generally flatter pay scale overall compared to most other countries, a corporate lawyer isn't that much better off than a teacher. The most important aspect of this is that when your nation's best and brightest choose a career path, massive disparities in quality of life is not a mitigating factor detracting from careers in education.
- aianus 11y agoGood teachers are important, but they can only affect, what, 20 kids a year? The best and brightest should stick to engineering and finance where they can have a bigger impact.
- jkyle 11y ago> The best and brightest should stick to engineering and finance where they can have a bigger impact. Many of the best and brightest stay in academia, but at the university level. Many others go into engineering and finance, but make no real lasting impact mostly working on the day to day tasks of making the cogs turn. Currently many of the smartest engineers in silicon valley have dedicated their careers to selling targeted ads. In the scheme of things, I'd be hard pressed placing selling X more power drills a year or "yet another CRUD app" over building the foundation of a quality education system.
- aianus 11y agoYes, but a quality education system requires thousands of people who can each only affect ~20-100 people a year. It's not an efficient use of the 'best and brightest'. Meanwhile 55 engineers at WhatsApp can write software used daily by 700m people. Or a handful of financiers can find a new way to securitize debt, lowering interest rates for 100m borrowers.
- lemming 11y agoOr a handful of financiers can find a new way to securitize debt, lowering interest rates for 100m borrowers. Or they could find a new way to ignore investment risk in the interest of naked greed, causing suffering for millions all over the globe.
- aianus 11y agoYep, the flip side to having a massive impact is that you also have a massive impact when you're wrong. You'd still want the 'best and brightest' in those positions than not.
- zurn 11y agoThose engineers won the lottery. The prize was many people switching to a marginally nicer chat app. If you're looking to make the world a better place, choosing engineering based on this result isn't really an obvious choice.
- aianus 11y agoNo, but it's also not obvious that having a profound impact on 1000 people is better than having a small impact on a billion people.
- mercurial 11y agoI'm not sure that the world needs yet more traders and hedge fund managers, to be honest. A bunch of competent, not-too-dishonest politicians, on the other hand...
- aianus 11y agoThe world doesn't need more traders and hedge fund managers. But it does need the best people to be in positions with high leverage such as hedge fund manager.