What If? Teachers, Refuse Collectors, and Everyday Warriors

A long time ago, I was told by one of my mentors that much could be gleaned about a person — or community, or nation — by observing how they valued their Teachers and Garbagemen. The point, as I suspect you’ve inferred, was not to focus merely on these two occupations, but all such occupations which were, and are, necessary for the smooth functioning of any society of size.

There’s a long list of these necessary roles, some of which are central to making the community livable for today and the near future (refuse collection, road maintenance, firefighting, weather data and prediction, food and product safety, just to name a very few), while others are equally essential for the long term preservation and advancement of the society (education of our children, infectious disease isolation and elimination, protection of intellectual property, establishment and enforcement of safety standards, and many more).

I’ve omitted many essential chores or careers from the two lists above. Perhaps the most notable omissions are military and law enforcement. These are indispensable to the smooth functioning of any complex society. I’ve written before of the fact than any sufficiently complex community or society must develop a policing function to insure continuity, and the various branches of the military provide an outward-looking equivalence to our internal law enforcement, although their specific tasks and actions may be very different.

I’m quite proud of the fact that my society, despite still sometimes dealing with scars left over from the Vietnam conflict, has now come to grips with the fact that our servicemen are to be honored for their commitment to duty and country at the expense of self. Although some veterans say they’d prefer we not do so, most of us “Thank them for their service” despite perhaps wishing the specific conflicts which took so many of them hadn’t occurred. We haven’t yet quite achieved that same level of equanimity toward all domestic law enforcement personnel, perhaps because of specific incidents in specific communities near to us, but it still seems that most of us value most of them most of the time; that’s not enough, but it’s a start.

So what is all this leading to? When we say “Thank you for your service”, if we really mean what we say, we’re expressing appreciation not only that they’ve undertaken a difficult, and often hazardous, role in society which most of us would go to considerable lengths to avoid. We’re also appreciative that they chose this path rather than a career in the private sector which might have offered higher income, higher social status, and other tangible and intangible rewards, while likely being less hazardous or demanding. Or do we, as I often suspect, say “Thank you for your service” only because we’re aware that some of their comrades didn’t return from the field of battle and that the veterans to whom we speak may have returned with physical or psychological wounds? I’d posit that anything short of the first set of reasons is inadequate, and shows that we don’t really value the person and his or her sacrifice, but only the physical hazard.

OK. So, if we really do value that sacrifice of self, that willingness to perhaps turn aside from a lucrative career and instead do something to help one’s community, nation, even all mankind, shouldn’t we similarly thank each of those who have made that choice? Shouldn’t we thank and appreciate all those who preserve or increase The Commons — that ill-defined but essential set of tangible and intangible assets which belong to, and benefit, everyone, rather than just the specific individual or group who may hold a deed or claim of ownership to a specific property or item of intellectual property?

Don’t the people who inspect food production facilities to reduce or eliminate the risks of e. coli or other potentially fatal food borne illnesses deserve our thanks — instead of our complaint that they, as the embodiment of food safety regulations, impose costs on our food producers and raise the price of our meals?

Don’t the people of NOAA and NASA who collect data to provide more accurate weather forecasts, thereby improving our safety when traveling and the likelihood we’ll have at least some advance warning of severe weather, deserve our thanks rather than being targeted as purveyors of Fake Science because the data they’ve collected supports evidence of Climate Change?

Don’t teachers, to whom we entrust the most valuable part of our family and society, deserve our thanks and support, rather than our obstruction and efforts to undermine?

It’s evident that the people who choose many of these occupations do what they do at least partly for psychic compensation — love of the task, and perhaps the value to society — because in most cases we certainly are not showing our thanks in their paychecks.

Whew! Longish introduction to this “What if” exercise, which is: “What if we compensated and revered Teachers, Garbagemen, Policemen, Firemen, and the many other necessary societal roles based on their overall importance to our societal well-being and stability?” What would our society look like? Would a star teacher be more or less valuable than a sitcom actor? Would an undercover detective be more or less highly esteemed than an advertising executive? Would an ER nurse, or a hazardous waste disposal professional, make more or less than a professional golfer? And what would those changes mean for our communities and society? It’s an engaging thought experiment. I’ll plan to follow up here in a future posting, and meanwhile hope that some readers also chime in with their thoughts.