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Another perspective on the value of technical writers
Subject:Another perspective on the value of technical writers From:Steven Jong <SteveFJong -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 1 Jan 1999 10:49:22 EST
Instead of flagellating ourselves over our intrinsic worth, we can sidestep
the whole issue and consider a more dispassionate theory: the law of supply
and demand.
Primarily, salaries are driven not by intrinsic worth but by how many people
you can hire to get the work done. For example, today we clearly recognize the
vital importance of education. Yet even as teachers' salaries languish, we as
a society are still willing to pay some churlish and personally despicable
fellow tens of millions of dollars because he can throw a ball or elude
tacklers or score goals. It's not that a professional athlete is fifty to a
hundred times more worthy, but because an equally qualified teacher is fifty
to a hundred times more easily found.
-- Steve
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Steven Jong, Documentation Team Manager ("Typo? What tpyo?")
Lightbridge, Inc., 67 South Bedford St., Burlington, MA 01803 USA mailto:jong -at- lightbridge -dot- com -dot- nospam 781.359.4902 [voice]
Home Sweet Homepage: http://members.aol.com/SteveFJong
