Thief, Teacher, and Treasurer

All three are just trying to do their best to make a living in order to survive in the man-made world. All 3 professions require specialized skills and years of practices to be good at them. They all have important functions in the man-made world. In a free society, each person can choose what to do for a living. However, more often than not, it is the profession that chooses the person. Our man-made world needs all kinds of professions to make it work and there are more people with unique mental and physical capabilities to satisfy the tasks at hand. Thief, teacher, and treasurer are just 3 of the professions in a field of thousands that comprise the working class in a civilized society. Not all people’s work is beneficial to the society and some are even unlawful. But, they all play a role in making our civilization the way it is.

Thief

A thief takes things from others without permission and immediate awareness. Since the act is against the law and if caught, the thief will be put in prison. Yet, the thief is still everywhere and getting more sophisticated – identity theft, online hacking, industrial secrets espionage, etc. Why would any person risk incarceration to make a living as a thief? The obvious reason can be that the profession requires no formal schooling, the reward outweighs the risk, one controls one’s own working schedule, and or it is something that one is good at naturally. Since the law is not enough to stop the thief, we have to spend tremendous amount of money and energy to protect our properties:

1. We install alarm system and surveillance camera in home and at work to prevent unwanted entry,

2. We implement security firewall and anti-spam software in our PCs to guard against unauthorized access,

3. We employ thousands of workers to grant and protect the patents and trademarks from people’s original ideas, etc.

   Thief makes us aware that not everybody has the financial means to receive proper education in order to get good paying job, that not everybody is law abiding and content to live a comfortable routine life, and that most people have stolen something from parents, friends, and or at work given the right circumstance.

Teacher

To be a teacher in a school requires higher education and special training. The person’s temperament, patience, open-mindedness, and dedication determine whether one is to be a good teacher. The teacher helps the pupils to understand all we know about Nature and the man-made world, so that when they grow into adulthood, they will have a better chance of knowing how and what to do with their life. Not everyone can be and want to be a teacher. To some, teaching is just a job. To some, teaching is a career. To some, teaching is a mission in life. Teacher exerts unforeseen influence especially on the young and the innocent when their eyes are wide open, their brains are learning to reason, their minds are wondering, and their hearts know no wickedness.

Treasurer

The treasurer is in charge of the flow of money and is constantly making sure that enough money is coming in to pay for the expense. In a home, the treasurer is usually the head of the household. The job is relatively simple requiring only a rudimentary understanding of arithmetic and how to balance the check book. It is a totally different story for a company with hundreds of employees. The incomes can come from many sources (products sold, services rendered, investments, etc.) and there are many expenses to keep track of (payrolls, insurances, office supplies, taxes, etc.). A treasurer needs to know the company’s organization and business, to understand the computer system that will handle all the complex number crunching and the generation of the 100-page-long financial report, and to keep track of the latest developments in the financial markets and the tax codes. The professional treasurer requires as a minimum, a college degree in business and be comfortable with accounting practices. The treasurer monitors and reports problems of and makes recommendation to the company’s financial health.

Jobs

We have come a long way from a time when the only work was to find food to feed the family. Today, we need workers:

1. In the hospital to keep people healthy,

2. In the school to help people educated,

3. In the agriculture industry to provide food on the table,

4. In the government to dish out public services,

5. In the movie business to offer people entertainment,

6. In the manufacturing factory to produce machines that enhance the quality of people’s life, etc.

   Most of the people would like to have a stable, low stress, and good enough paying job to raise a happy family. The challenge is that in the real world, the job opportunity depends on the economic conditions, the qualification and experience, and the kinds of work that are in demand:

1. An artist may find work only in the auto assembly plant,

2. A writer may find work only as an extra in a movie,

3. A musician may find work only as a waiter in a restaurant, etc.

   A person with no particular aspiration may choose to study for a degree in college that will enhance the chance of landing a good job like the teacher or the treasurer. For some who cannot afford a college degree, they may be stuck in the low-paid, labor-intensive job market or choose to be a thief working in the shadow as one’s own boss.