Michelle Obama and the “helping industry”
Byron York has a very interesting article today in which he recounts a campaign visit earlier this week by Michelle Obama to a small, struggling town in Ohio. Zanesville is “in Muskingum County, where, according to the census, the median household income in 2004 was $37,192, below both the Ohio and national average.”
Here’s her pitch to the locals,
“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.”
“We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”
York reminds us that the Ivy League educated Obama’s don’t exactly have a lot in common with the good people of Zanesville Ohio. He also reminds us that the “helping industry” helps those with connected husbands alot more than those with truck driver husbands,
What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.
Outside of a professional athlete, have you ever heard of such a statospheric raise in such a short period of time? If the “helping industry’ paid that well for everyone, lots of people would be happy to leave the evils of corporate America.
Millionaire populism is such a drag.
February 29, 2008 1:31 pm 
Sure, similar roles in Corporate America…
If you make it to the top of a non-profit, healthcare, education, you’re still seeing tripple digit compensation now a days. They might not be there anymore, but up until the last few years they haven’t ecactly been making bank for the work they’ve chosen out of college.
I think I’ve read somewhere their total worth is somewhere around 1 million, most made because of the book deals, and Barak and his wifes success after his political career took off.
[...] I’ve been thinking about Barack Obama’s decision more than tweny years ago to join the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. It was a calculated decision by this outsider, Ivy League graduate to connect with the inner city community that he saw as his base as he planned a career in the helping industry, er, public life. [...]
gratis kasino spel nerladdning…
factories absentminded?fables.extremists paces …
[...] 17, 2008 by madamab Having seen various statements from Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Howard Dean about how the female voter should think and behave, I’ve reached directly [...]
[...] He thought she was was cold and ungrateful? Me too! [...]
Michelle Obama is very charismatic just like her husband and it is the reason why i like her. I also feel that she could connect with people more easily than any other first ladies.
I saw Michelle Obama in person and she is really a very tall Lady. She is also a very charming and charismatic woman just like his husband.