The other day, I met up with two friends from school. We were having drinks and one friend mentioned some websites where you can look up public record information about anyone mildly important. For instance, she could see how much the director of our program donated to Obama, and how much his house is worth. That’s how this conversation came into place.
Another friend, John, is from another country and is a super nice guy. One of the nicest, happiest, most easygoing-est people I’ve known. I only say this because he isn’t one of those typical rich douchebags, and that he’s coming from a good place:
John: I heard that professors don’t make a lot of money. How much they do they make? Like $300 – 400,000?
Me: No! College Presidents make that much. Then if you’re a dean or director of a program you’ll probably make between $100-200,000.
John: What? Then how much do professors make?
Me: 60-90?
John: How do they survive on that????
Me: Well, if you’re a professor making 70, your husband or wife probably makes around the same amount and that’s a pretty good amount for a family to live on.
J: Oh I forgot about combined incomes. But if you’re 50 years old and only making $100,000, isn’t that bad?
Me: No no no! For one person? That puts you in the top 10% for income in the U.S!!
That was the end of the conversation and we moved on. I think he just honestly had misconceptions about what it means to be wealthy here and that blew me away. That kinda makes me wonder about how rich people from developing countries see us. (Meanwhile, someone else probably overheard our conversation and is blogging about how we’re douchebags)
On another note, I am so sick of bougie American graduate students complaining that professors “don’t make a lot of money”. Ok, un-tenured professors make shit. But tenured professors make at least 60 and top out at 100k; where I come from, that’s not shit money. And that’s just me using a state university as reference; it’s probably more at a private school. Plus it’s secure, you get you good benefits, no one really tells you what to do, no manual labor involved, and your summers are free. They complain about crappy salaries, but at the same time they want to pretend they’re the proletariat all the time. Wake up calls are in order.
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