Sometimes my students at Wayne State University ask me questions that aren't related to journalism, but have to do with the real world. They figure that since I am in my fifties and not yet homeless, that I must know something about this thing called life.
Well, often I don't, but sometimes I can be minimally helpful.
Occasionally I even give fashion advice, even though my own wardrobe consists largely of baggy gray suits.
I did once tell one young woman who had a giant tattoo of a dragon across her neck that wearing a ruffled collar to her job interview in Holland might be a good idea.
Sometimes, students ask me about money. Last term, I cautioned them that it is pretty hard to make a living at journalism these days. This was greeted with disdain by one woman. I really don't think I need all that much money to live, she said. I asked if she planned on eventually breeding, as I put it.
Well, yes, she wanted two children. You can forget everything I taught you about David Sarnoff, but remember this, I said. Children cost money. Astronomical sums.
Fortunately, Wayne State students are highly diverse, and I frequently have older adults in my classes who are already breeders. They agreed that for once I was right.
Personally, I am always fascinated by how people spend money, especially those lucky few who have lots of it. Yesterday, for example, Rick Snyder, a venture capitalist from Ann Arbor, spent more than a million to run a campaign commercial during the Super Bowl. Snyder wants to be the Republican nominee for governor.
Now, the election is still so far away that if my potentially breeding student became pregnant today, she would probably have her baby before the voting. But campaigns start early.
The polls now show few know who Mr. Snyder is, and that only three percent of likely voters in the GOP primary favor him. He's running way behind Mike Cox, Pete Hoekstra and Mike Bouchard. But Snyder is far richer than they are, and he's apparently betting that enough green stuff can close the gap. I can't imagine spending that kind of money running for anything, but some people might think my own spending is bizarre.
Last month, my dog was diagnosed with lymphoma. He was like a child to me, and I went to the state's best critical care veterinary hospital in an effort to save him. This didn't work, sadly, though the cost was around eight hundred dollars a day.
We're in a virtual depression in Michigan, and yet the waiting room of that hospital's cancer ward was packed with people. I talked to one woman who had spent thousands on her cat. She wasn't rich, but it was worth it to her. But she was very bitter about President Obama's stimulus programs, which she saw as wasting money. I wonder how she feels about Justin Verlander getting $80 million to throw a baseball.
Finally, one of my students asked me the one economic question I had been waiting for. How much money do you need to live? For once, I knew the answer. Five thousand more than you've got, I said. And that figure will stay constant your entire life.
I wonder if Rick Snyder feels the same way.
Comments