Almost Like Work
Today, I taught two classes back-to-back, at 11:00 to 1:05, then 1:15 to 3:20; after that, I facilitated a meeting from 3:30 to 5:00. Man, I don’t know how people with real fulltime jobs do it. After six hours straight of non-stop having to be “on,” I was totally spent.
Good thing I had the ride home to decompress; otherwise, I’d never have managed going out to dinner.
I’m spoiled, I know, and I wonder how bad, if at all, I should feel about that. On the one hand, I realize that it’s dumb luck that I’ve ended up in the relatively cush situation I find myself; on the other hand, I realize that feeling guilty over my good fortune does nothing to alleviate anyone else’s pain or suffering.
In the Business Ethics class, we (or at least I) have been an article by the original “greed is good” guy, Milton Friedman in which he argues that the only “social” responsibility a business has is to maximize profits. Desirable social ends are not to be pursued by corporations—that’s the job of government—businesses should pursue profit and in doing so, desirable social ends will be fostered indirectly.
One student, who is attending Cascadia on a Gates Foundation Scholarship, pointed out that if Microsoft hadn’t been such a cutthroat competitor over the years, his scholarship might not even exist.
By this reasoning, I shouldn’t waste a moment feeling bad about feeling so good; I should just enjoy myself and in doing so spread the love around.
Of course, Friedman, may he rest in peace, was kind of a nutjob, wasn’t he? Most of the students in my class, even those who profess wanting nothing more from school than to get a good job and make lots of money, were relatively appalled by his naked form of uber-capitalism.
My own concern is slightly tangential; I simply don’t have what it takes to work as hard as Friedman’s view requires.
Good thing I had the ride home to decompress; otherwise, I’d never have managed going out to dinner.
I’m spoiled, I know, and I wonder how bad, if at all, I should feel about that. On the one hand, I realize that it’s dumb luck that I’ve ended up in the relatively cush situation I find myself; on the other hand, I realize that feeling guilty over my good fortune does nothing to alleviate anyone else’s pain or suffering.
In the Business Ethics class, we (or at least I) have been an article by the original “greed is good” guy, Milton Friedman in which he argues that the only “social” responsibility a business has is to maximize profits. Desirable social ends are not to be pursued by corporations—that’s the job of government—businesses should pursue profit and in doing so, desirable social ends will be fostered indirectly.
One student, who is attending Cascadia on a Gates Foundation Scholarship, pointed out that if Microsoft hadn’t been such a cutthroat competitor over the years, his scholarship might not even exist.
By this reasoning, I shouldn’t waste a moment feeling bad about feeling so good; I should just enjoy myself and in doing so spread the love around.
Of course, Friedman, may he rest in peace, was kind of a nutjob, wasn’t he? Most of the students in my class, even those who profess wanting nothing more from school than to get a good job and make lots of money, were relatively appalled by his naked form of uber-capitalism.
My own concern is slightly tangential; I simply don’t have what it takes to work as hard as Friedman’s view requires.
posted by Professor Dave at 10:15 PM
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