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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2000)
Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas Newsroom: (541)346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu Tuesday May 16,2000 Volume 101, Issue 153 Emerald purpose When considering your first real job, ask yourself whether you want a job with meaning or just service with a smile Wmrk Bryan Dixon Emerald As many of us face the ominous prospect of finding real jobs come June, we have to deal with the fact that there are many criteria to consider. There are obvious ones, such as where you want to live or how much mon ey you would like to make. But there are also more subtle distinctions that we should be looking at. For instance, does your job involve actually DOING any thing? By this I mean does it actually serve an interest other than perpetuating its own existence? I expect that most of the University’s class of 2000 graduates are not considering gas station jobs, at least not the smelly ones (jobs, not students). But if your criterion were “I need a job that keeps me in Ore gon,” that would definitely be one way to go. (Since 1951, self-service gasoline sta tions have been illegal here.) This is an ex ample of how a job really exists solely for its own sake, but gas jobs enjoy a security that many other jobs do not. I admit that gas station attendants serve the public by pumping gas. So, some of them do actually DO something. From an other perspective, though, many of us who have driven a fair amount in other states believe that the existence of mandatory gas station attendants simply undermines our desire to have gas pumped to our own sat isfaction. Full service gasoline does have an eco nomic niche in other states: it’s smaller, but it’s there. Oregon’s higher number of per capita gas station at tendants simply re flects jobs that exist solely to perpetuate themselves. Now consider the way in which we have preserved these extra jobs. Clearly the excess would be eliminated if the ban were repealed. But all in all, this is not a gigantic burden on Ore gon’s economy because the full-service gas industry is not the basis for any sort of eco nomic revolution. Unfortunately, more and more segments of our society and economy have begun to center around occupations that do not actually accomplish anything tangible. Jonathan Gruber The Internet age has revolutionized the job market and the economy. And surely the technology will continue to enable our society to conduct business more efficient ly. The world of the Internet is one in which you only occasionally encounter a job that actually affects people’s lives in any manner at all. It is when we create multiple steps be tween a given job and its actual, useful ac tion that people at one end lose sight of people at the other end. This is when are livelihoods are going to be in trouble. For instance, now investors can shorten the time they invest in a company to mere hours. But is “day-trading” accomplishing anything? Not really, unless you argue that by investing in companies for several hours, the day-traders are stimulating eco nomic development. In any case, that is certainly not a day-trader’s motivation or concern. In 1997, Albania collapsed to near anar chy because approximately half of its Gross Domestic Product was composed of liabilities in pyramid schemes, according to the World Bank. Certainly our economy is in less danger than that. But it’s not im penetrable. Why did the stock market crash in 1929 do so much damage to the economy? Too many people relied on the stocks as a reasonable way to make money and they stopped using their time to ac complish something that affects other peo ple. As University students seek jobs, the ap pealing ones are going to be in hot new markets with hot new tasks that our par ents would have never dreamed existed. But if those tasks do not have a basis in tan gible service to society, the lack of job secu rity is just the beginning of potential prob lems. This is not just an issue of self-preserva tion for each University student. It is an is sue of personal satisfaction, and ultimately it’s an issue of the quality of society. Would you rather live in a world where children aspire to become firefighters, doctors or mechanics, or in a world in which children dream of their retirement at age 24 because they fortuitously sold their dot-com stock before the crash? Jonathan Gruber is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. He can be reached via e-mail atjgruber@gladstone.uoregon.edu. Letters to the editor Police waste mass funds In response to the Emerald’s ir responsible endorsement of Ballot Measure 20-31 and to anyone who believes the Eugene Police Depart ment needs more funding: Maybe you guys should ride in Critical Mass on the last Friday of the month. Critical Mass bike rides are attended by police officers wast ing tax dollars. The riders in Criti cal Mass have First Amendment rights of freedom of association, freedom of expression and free dom to assemble. If EPD funding can be allocated to watch riders exercise these rights, how can these fascists claim they are un derfunded? Maybe the people of Eugene, rather than give the EPD more money to squander on the oppression of the community, should demand that they use the funding they have to fight crime. I refuse to contribute one more red cent to fascism. Critical Mass oc curs the last Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. and begins at 13th Av enue and Kincaid Street. I highly recommend that those interested ride with us and see for them selves how the EPD spends its money. Randy Newnham co-coordinator, University Survival Center Bettman will get the job done As a longtime downtown busi ness owner and resident since 1970, I am writing this letter in support of Bonny Bettman for Eu gene City Council in Ward 3. I have known Bettman for sever al years and found her to be dedi cated, thoughtful and easy to work with. She has labored tirelessly in pursuit of a better Eugene commu nity with her longtime participa tion on many civic committees and boards, including serving as the chairwoman of Eugene’s Citi zen Involvement Committee and the co-chairwoman for the Friend ly Area Neighborhood Associa tion. I share Bettman’s vision for downtown revitalization and land use transportation codes that en courage all modes of transporta tion in and around the city core extending to the entire metropoli tan area. Creating walkable neigh borhoods, bicycle lanes and better bus service are a part of future planning needs. As a mother of two, Bettman be lieves in strong school support and a safe environment for all our children. She helped initiate the installation of traffic calming safe ty devices in her residential neigh borhood. Bettman gets things done. I believe that Bettman would be a strong addition to the Eugene City Council. Cary D. Thompson Eugene resident
