7/01/2004

Things to think about while sitting in traffic #1

I wonder what society would be like if everyone made the exact same amount of money - no more, no less - regardless of job title.

Would social class and status completely melt away? Would race become the primary culural delineation again, as it was before the civil rights movement? Or would one's religion replace a rolex as a way of signifying which side of the proverbial tracks one is from?

I mean, understandably, making sense of the world around each of us and how we're supposed to fit into it is best learned when we can establish frames of reference... if you take away class status, will society simply replace one frame of reference (what defines this person? where do they come from? what is their life like?) for another?

So, if everyone made, say, a million dollars a year regardless of job title, education or family name, what would the new frame of reference be?

I am *so* over technology...

I've had it with technology.

No, really - I've completely had it. Our entire industry is having a collective brain fart and we're desperately clinging to things that were successful (or in most cases, not) in the past -- to the exclusion of an innovative future. I no longer feel like a contributing, socially responsible member of society... tangibly making a difference in the world, even if it isn't the next "Big Thing"tm.

I mean, we're all practically killing ourselves developing products with a frenetically decreasing shelf-life. Things that may or may not get launched - let alone be useful to anyone - are obsolete before they can get unpacked from their boxes at Fry's. All for what?!

Stock options?! Hah!

An IPO-jackpot? Unless you're at Google - your odds of becoming an overnight paper millionaire are significantly lower than those of the Bush administration eliminating the national debt - ever.

A little bit of geek-street cred? That only goes so far - do *you* remember the name of the guy who invented the < BLINK > tag??

Well, I for one think it's all just greedy, shallow nonsense and it's time to change gears to an industry that I can make a difference in.

Fashion.

Yes, that's right. Doing my part to ensure that the emaciated, botoxed, liposucked, face-lifted doyennes of upper eschelon urbane society look as unapproachably, impossibly fabulous as their well-bred/well-married status implies is exactly how I want to make a difference and change the world. One trophy wife at a time.

So much for the Computer Science degree (sorry, Dad!).