Ted Koppel's Show about Prisons
Saw part of it last night. Scary stuff. And what a strange society we have made, where a prison guard's salary equals that of three or four college professor's salaries combined. I understand that one has to pay extra for dangerous work, but aren't the implications for what our society values or prioritizes a little disturbing? Well, the zombies are going to even all this out in a big way, so there's probably not too much point in worrying about it.
But that's an interesting point, too, come to think of it. Does thinking about the Apocalypse make you more accepting and dismissive of societal ills, since you expect them to be wiped clean in the near future? That'd be an interesting and very dangerous dynamic to Apocalyptic thinking, and one I've long suspected is going on with things like the Left Behind series and other Christian obsessions with the End Times.
But that's an interesting point, too, come to think of it. Does thinking about the Apocalypse make you more accepting and dismissive of societal ills, since you expect them to be wiped clean in the near future? That'd be an interesting and very dangerous dynamic to Apocalyptic thinking, and one I've long suspected is going on with things like the Left Behind series and other Christian obsessions with the End Times.
posted by KPaffenroth at
12:42 PM
3 Comments:
Thanks for the Rapture update!
I believe this answers my original question, so carry on.
I'm not sure that society values prison guards over professors. Rather, we live in a world where we need both prison guards and professors. Being the latter, as lifestyle, is more desirable than the former. We employers needn't pay large salaries to lure candidates to academic positions, but they do need large monetary carrots to get people to spend their days and nights in the horrors of our prison system. Hence prison guards are payed more than professors, without any societal valuing of either involved.
Very true, there is the question of where the valuation enters into the transaction. In other words, the situation is not analogous to the insane amounts we pay sports and music stars (whose lifestyles are not dangerous or demanding), where it is much clearer that society values what they do (when such value seems highly dubious). But I would still say that the health of a society could be measured by comparing how much they spend on prisons versus how much they spend on education.
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