Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
No Country for Old Liberals
As many have pointed out, Ronald Reagan, patron saint of today’s Republican party, would be too liberal to survive in the current political climate. America seems to be swinging far to the right, even in the midst of a Democratic administration. If you’ll grant me that each Republican administration’s excesses have been greater than the ones preceding it, what will the next one bring?
We toyed with the idea of moving to Canada during the dark, dark Bush years. Now, well into Obama’s first term, we still have Guantanamo, rendition, and two (soon to be three) wars in the Middle East. But I suspect we’ll stick it out here, at least until it comes time for me to retire. My current job is just too great to consider making the change.
My son, on the other hand — now, there’s a different story. His whole life is ahead of him. So here’s the question: if you were a teenager and could do anything or go anywhere, what would you do?
We were trying to think of what sort of career (A) paid well and (B) provided the individual with a great deal of mobility. The best I could come up with was international law. Or Jake could become CEO of a multinational corporation, but I think I may be guilty of a little over-reach on that one. Medicine provides a certain amount of mobility, too, but he doesn’t have any obvious interest in medicine. (But you never know. Children of doctors tend to stay in the biz.)
What do you think?
D.
While international law might provide the flexibility you want for Jake, I would recommend that you carefully consider the value of law school. There have been a plethora of articles in the last few years about the cost vs return, the changing nature of the legal profession, and the extremely varying degrees of job satisfaction, including pieces in the WSJ and NYT.
I’m not sorry I went to law school and I like my job (most days). But if I were a student today, it probably would not be my career choice, given the high cost ($100,000 average in student loans) and poor job market.
Private banking, other banking/financial services, international civil servant, Foreign Service Officer, bank examiner, management consultant, missionary (oh, not paid well), explorer (ditto), Formula One driver, mercenary, international arms dealer, drug dealer, international development consultant (money is far better than you’d think dealing with poverty would bring)…
The question is whether you mean mobility to require frequent moves (like in the Foreign Service) or just lots of options to relocate?
Me, I used to think of Canada as a sort of cool weather Utopia, although my Canadian friends disagree and there’s currently a right-wing government up there that wouldn’t bring much improvement versus living in the lower 50.
jmc — yeah, I hadn’t realized law had become so glutted. I guess medicine still rules in that regard — we’re always in a shortage situation.
Kira — explorer? Makes me want to be young again! And I mean “lots of options to relocate.” Maybe he should just become Swedish. But I’m not sure of his opinion of tall, busty blondes.
I thought about Sweden, since I used to think Scandanavia was another Utopian paradise, but they are having assimilation issues with the large number of immigrants in the country, which, of course, has led to an anti-immigrant party. Sweden’s not what we think it used to be…
Oh, that is sad. Guess he’ll just have to be a drug dealer.
I’m reasonably sure that graduating with an MD from pretty much any US institution guarantees employability. With the aging of the First World, it means you can move pretty much anywhere. And the 2nd and 3rd worlds are open, too, if you’re willing to make some sacrifices. That isn’t true in many fields.
And aren’t radiologists in even shorter supply? I think I remember seeing some numbers in which radiologists would be in heavy demand for years.
In my field, there is good 1st world mobility for people who do what I do, which is database development/administration. IT project management likewise. Other areas tend to be more nichey and subject to fads.
Oh, and KK, Canada’s right wing party are to the left of the US Democrats. The lefties up here grumble about how they want us to be like the US, but it’s just typical lefty griping. The Conservatives here are socially conservative, it’s true, but they lack any real power to make any sort of change. They can’t even get rid of the colossally wasteful gun registry.
The best the left (and the left here in Canada is far, far to the left of the Dems in the US) can do is mumble about ‘hidden agendas’ and refer to Harper’s Christian beliefs, but there is absolutely no way that, say, banning abortion (to pick everybody’s fave hot button topic) would fly here.
And there’s nobody even remotely as scary as Sarah Palin on the horizon.
So, no, living in Canada even under a Conservative government is not like living in the US.
Thanks for the input, Dean. Nice to know there’s still a haven to the North 🙂
OK, I’m ready to move!
Sorry, circling back late. The law is weird in that there are a lot of people who want to be lawyers, because they think it is prestigious or whatever else, without actually understanding the realities of practicing law. And despite over-lawyering in some subject matter and geographic areas, there are still millions of people who need legal assistance but can’t afford it, since legal services are not subsidized or insured the way medicine/health care is. One of the biggest problems that has arisen, in part because of the increasing cost of tuition (a 100% increase at my alma mater in 10 years), fewer and fewer students can afford to go into the public interest areas that they might be most interested in.
So what we need are independently wealthy gentleman (or gentlewoman) lawyers who champion the poor — a host of Batman-like lawyers. But the sad fact is that independently wealthy seem to spend most of their time trying to get wealthier.