Fat City, Illinois
"Thank you, Illinois taxpayers, for my cushy life," writes writes recently retired sociology prof David Rubinstein in The Weekly Standard:
After 34 years of teaching sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I recently retired at age 64 at 80 percent of my pay for life. This calculation was based on a salary spiked by summer teaching, and since I no longer pay into the retirement fund, I now receive significantly more than when I "worked." But that's not all: There's a generous health insurance plan, a guaranteed 3 percent annual cost of living increase, and a few other perquisites. Having overinvested in my retirement annuity, I received a fat refund and--when it rains, it pours--another for unused sick leave. I was also offered the opportunity to teach as an emeritus for three years, receiving $8,000 per course, double the pay for adjuncts, which works out to over $200 an hour. Another going-away present was summer pay, one ninth of my salary, with no teaching obligation.I haven't done the math but I suspect that, given a normal life span, these benefits nearly doubled my salary. And in Illinois these benefits are constitutionally guaranteed, up there with freedom of religion and speech.
Why do I put "worked" in quotation marks? Because my main task as a university professor was self-cultivation: reading and writing about topics that interested me. Maybe this counts as work. But here I am today--like many of my retired colleagues--doing pretty much what I have done since the day I began graduate school, albeit with less intensity.
As for the rest of us, we'll be struggling to pick up odd jobs at 97 to keep guys like this in benefits.
"What I describe above is not so exaggerated as one might think. It is, in fact, very much like what I experienced during my last year in graduate school, and doubtless much like what many other graduate students in the humanities have dealt with during the last three years after finishing their degrees: depression and anxiety at the prospect of not finding work, feelings of scholarly worthlessness, and, perhaps most pernicious of all, the ominous realization that now, Ph.D. in hand, you have become an obscure subaltern, fated to roam the university landscape from one adjunct appointment to another."
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2011/05/23/a_new_ph_d_shares_advice_on_the_academic_job_market
But look at the bright side, it means you will have more time to work for Barack Obama's reelection!
Bill C at May 26, 2011 1:35 PM
"In Illinois these benefits are constitutionally guaranteed, up there with freedom of religion and speech."
This is why the coming economic crisis is so dangerous. The government at all levels has been greedy and unconstrained. The outrageous gaming of the system and fat promises to government bureaucracies will break our economy.
Worse, most of these schemes have been carefully embedded into "the law", including into state constitutions and Federal statute. The economic crisis will be a legal crisis as well. All of these economic "guarantees" will be smashed along with respect for a "law" which is exposed as being the plaything of the bureaucrats who are happily trying to enslave the young.
The law will be bent and broken. Think of Russia: it isn't what you know about the law, it will be who you have paid off in the administration.
The productivity of our society will sink to a lower level as people reduce their dreams and investments. They will face the uncertainty of never knowing when the effective law will be brought to bear on them, as in Russia.
Our old society was too coordinated, predictible, and boring. What fun we will have, discovering how the new world will work out.
Andrew_M_Garland at May 26, 2011 2:19 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/26/fat_city_illino.html#comment-2177026">comment from Andrew_M_GarlandThank you, Andrew -- always appreciate when you weigh in. The future is very worrisome. I don't see any ways out. Does anyone?
Amy Alkon at May 26, 2011 2:41 PM
The present value of these retirement benefits...ie, how much someone would have to pay to purchase an equivalent annuity...is certainly more than $1 million, and probably more like $2 million. But when Obama talks about "millionaires," you can bet he doesn't have these government and academic employees in mind.
david foster at May 26, 2011 3:23 PM
"I don't see any ways out. Does anyone?"
You are enjoying the environment where you are now. Please remember that you would be considered a trophy by lots of people should the economy truly break. I don't think California is a good place to be because of the millions of clueless people in the big cities, but I couldn't tell you where to go - because there are about 200 million who don't pay taxes at all, and people of all kinds will become highly unreasonable when their $$ isn't worth anything.
Suze Orman has been hired to advertise for the FDIC, apparently because people are withdrawing money from banks. Think about that. There isn't enough cash to pay everyone who has an account, even though most bank customers have tiny savings!
Radwaste at May 26, 2011 4:48 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/26/fat_city_illino.html#comment-2177437">comment from RadwastePlease remember that you would be considered a trophy by lots of people should the economy truly break.
Thanks - that's very sweet, but I'm relatively useless. I don't cook, and I have the arm-strength of an 8-year-old, and I'm good at about six things, including writing and napping. (I hope writing will keep me from living in a box and eating cat food, but I have a hard time imagining how my skill at napping would.)
Amy Alkon at May 26, 2011 5:05 PM
Dude, the guy did put in 34 years. Let's not begrudge him his benefits just because it was way easier then to get tenure than it is now.
"I fear that a young Ph.D. looking for work today who challenged the increasingly rigid political orthodoxies would have a hard time."
I know from family experience that this is all too true.
snakeman99 at May 26, 2011 5:11 PM
Veeerrry off-topic, but: Amy, I'm always surprised that you don't enjoy cooking. It can't be for lack of ability (if you can read, you can cook), so it must be lack of interest. Not meant as a knock, but for someone who diligently researches Parisian pharmaceutical bargains as part of her advice, I know you'd probably very good at sniffing out good recipes involving value ingrediants.
snakeman99 at May 26, 2011 5:17 PM
"Dude, the guy did put in 34 years. Let's not begrudge him his benefits just because it was way easier then to get tenure than it is now."
Well, in one respect whether or not we begruge it is not relevant, because there is no money. However: also note the part where he stated (and I have no reason to doubt it) that his bennies are guaranteed by the Illinois State Constitution. Think about that... the highest law in the land (of Illinois), the piece of paper that is supposed to lay down the fundamental concept by which the people and their government operate, has it as one of its absolute bedrock principles that one class of people have an absolute right to everyone else's money. Once you have put something like that into your constitution, you no longer have a democracy. You have something else. I'm not sure what it is, but it isn't democracy.
Cousin Dave at May 26, 2011 5:51 PM
I don't see any ways out. Does anyone?
Posted by: Amy Alkon
Lastday, Capricorn 29's. Year of the City: 2274. Carousel begins.
lujlp at May 26, 2011 5:53 PM
I don't see any ways out. Does anyone?
The question is when, not if, the collapse is going to come.
The next question is what it is going to look like. The have-nots roaming the countryside killing, raping, and pillaging? Or will towns and villages just seal themselves off and the response will be a rifle bullet? Will there be a nuclear war, or a whimper?
Jim P. at May 26, 2011 6:46 PM
Crap, and I took my Ph.D. and went to work in tech.
Still worth it, even if our company doesn't end up a HuffPo-valued acquisition. Job prospects aren't great for newly-minted doctorates, and the thought of facing two years of post-doc slavery before taking a job at some school in some place I'd really not want to live (plus needing to write endless research papers to be successful long run) was too much for me.
We can complain about this guy, but his situation isn't very egregious - part of the reason that job prospects are so bad for young ph.ds is that older professors don't retire(waiting for that 100% pension, perhaps).
I don't think there is much to be done about this problem, unfortunately. The younger generation currently working is going to spend its productive years paying for the retirements of the boomers, and its later years paying for its own. Enjoying a long healthy retirement on a generous pension is a historical anomaly and this man's generation will mark the end of it. But they will get it and we will pay for it, barring a massive economic cataclysm.
Christopher at May 26, 2011 6:48 PM
What is the collapse going to look like? I'm skeptical of the roving gangs hypothesis. Most people are still generally decent. And when push comes to shove, I doubt a collapse of society like that seen in the movie "White Material" is going to happen. I wouldn't put up with little fuckers ripping people off. Most places in the world people still somehow survive.
I'm gonna drink now till I'm drunk. Truthfully screwed.
Abersouth at May 26, 2011 8:24 PM
"Most people are still generally decent."
As were the Germans of 1935. And...?
Everybody thinks they are immune from gross societal stupidity.
Nope. You're not.
Radwaste at May 26, 2011 9:32 PM
"I hope writing will keep me from living in a box and eating cat food, but I have a hard time imagining how my skill at napping would"
If you got some webcams and started a SleepingGoddess site where voyeurs could pay to watch you nap naked, you'd make money.
"What is the collapse going to look like?"
The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the collapse of the ruble in the Russian financial crisis of '98 might provide some clues. Zombies & cannibals did not roam the streets, but there was a great deal of suffering. Inflation soared past 80%. Life expectancy for men dropped to 50-something. Many people were told there was no more money to pay their wages and pensions and that was that. A lot of folks who thought they would enjoy the Russian version of the Good Life in their golden years found themselves selling potatoes on the streets of Moscow and going home to tiny apartments with no hot water.
Martin at May 26, 2011 10:18 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/26/fat_city_illino.html#comment-2178486">comment from Martin"I hope writing will keep me from living in a box and eating cat food, but I have a hard time imagining how my skill at napping would" If you got some webcams and started a SleepingGoddess site where voyeurs could pay to watch you nap naked, you'd make money.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Amy Alkon at May 26, 2011 11:41 PM
There is something very wrong here. Speaking as a professor, the first thing that leaped out at me was this:
"$8,000 per course...which works out to over $200 an hour"
A typical course will have 35 to 40 hours of lecture. So this guy is admitting that he does no preparation, grades no assignments, offers no student coaching. This is the kind of teacher that you could replace with a video.
Then we get this gem:
"my main task as a university professor was self-cultivation"
Funny, I think my main task as a university professor is to educate my students. Isn't that what universities are all about?
Of course, it call became clear when I went back to the top of the article:
"...retired sociology prof"
Ahem...
a_random_guy at May 27, 2011 12:36 AM
On the other hand, he's spent "34 years of teaching sociology". I don't think I could do 5 years without my brain making a desperate bid for escape via a nostril. I almost feel he deserves it.
Nah, not really.
Thanks - that's very sweet, but I'm relatively useless. I don't cook, and I have the arm-strength of an 8-year-old, and I'm good at about six things, including writing and napping.
With you on that one Amy. I'm very good at my current job as an engineer - but for various reasons (health, general laziness, irregular sleep veering from insomnia to constant naps) I'm relatively unemployable in a lot of jobs. I doubt I could hold down a supermarket checkout position. I'd try damn hard, but...
My deal with my current employer is pretty much - I get handed all the hard stuff that absolutely has to get done right and I do it, or annoy the people who need to do it till it's done. I don't complain about working weekends or interstate or getting out of hours phone calls. And they tolerate my tardiness, absences, and occasional breakdowns, as long as it's not obvious to the client.
The sad part is that if I were capable of doing the timeserver thing and turning up for the same hours every day, for years on end, doing a bunch of useless busywork, and spending more time on appearances and office politics I could probably get a similar deal to this guy, or at least better than I have now. But I can't. I need pressure and variety. A seat-warming job would drive me nuts. I think that's what annoys me so much when I read things like this.
But I can cook :)
Ltw at May 27, 2011 12:42 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/26/fat_city_illino.html#comment-2178882">comment from LtwI could cook if I had to. If you're at all a sensual person, I think you can cook. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but that's my thinking on it. What I try to do is to cut out all unnecessary tasks that take me away from writing. I'm increasingly clear that life is short and I'd better be productive. On that note, I finished a really hard chapter today, which is a huge relief. Gregg read it on the plane and thought it was good, and just basically suggested inserting some white space in a few places. Huge relief number two. (He's a tough critic.)
Amy Alkon at May 27, 2011 12:49 AM
Maybe sociologists don't work, but all the professors I know work their asses off. They never take vacations, because they need all the time off from teaching to do their research, give talks, write papers, etc.
My husband's a professor, and his main task is not self-cultivation, nor is it teaching students, it is producing research. That is the main thing he is judged on, -then- on teaching and on cultivating his graduate students and post-docs. He has to make sure THEY produce enough papers, too, so they can get good jobs when they leave him. He also has to go to conferences, referee papers, and sit on various hiring committees.
He has very little time for self-cultivation. He never reads books for fun, or for other parts of his lifestyle such as books on childcare. He leaves the house around 7:30 or 8, and while he comes back early he usually works until about 10 o'clock at night.
Usually I can lure him away for one afternoon on the weekend to do something fun like go for a hike or joyride, but not both.
The implication that professors don't work is nonsense. Mine just had to cancel a talk in England because he was worried about getting stranded due to the volcano (turns out it would have been fine) and I was hoping he'd get a chance to rest, but no, he isn't resting a bit. He's spending all his time on his next papers, and getting ideas for new ones so he always has one in the pipeline.
Frankly, I'm worried he's going to have a heart attack at age 40 or something.
Anyone who thinks this job is relaxing has no clue. And it's nice that sociologists can relax all the time... people in math and science can't.
NicoleK at May 27, 2011 1:14 AM
I'm sure you could cook, you know about the value of good ingredients and that's the main thing you need. There'd be a learning curve but once you got past it...
NicoleK at May 27, 2011 1:19 AM
Anyone who thinks this job is relaxing has no clue. And it's nice that sociologists can relax all the time... people in math and science can't.
That's because output and results in hard sciences are measurable. Other than by weight. I'd hate to have an academic job in my field, being the expert in an array of hacks is much more my style.
If you're at all a sensual person, I think you can cook.
I'm so stealing that for next time I whip up a restaurant quality dinner in less than half an hour for a girl. I don't care whether you're right or wrong - it's plausible bullshit.
Ltw at May 27, 2011 4:13 AM
"I don't see any ways out. Does anyone?
Posted by: Amy Alkon"
It is called inflation. Pepole are promised X dollars. They are not promised that those dollars will actually purchase anything. The government doesn't need to do anything except print those dollars. Illinois can't do it by themselves, of course, but the Feds have the same problem and the printing press.
MarkD at May 27, 2011 10:02 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/26/fat_city_illino.html#comment-2182536">comment from MarkDDon't really see that as a way out, MarkD!
Amy Alkon at May 27, 2011 10:18 AM
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