Sinecure

 A sinecure, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit. It comes from the Latin, sine cura, meaning wthout care. That's what most of this generation aspires to be, myself included. There's just so many distractions and things to get obsessed about (art, movies, outdoor activities, camping, video games, etc.) and so many things available now that doing hard, honest work has become less of a priority and simply making enough money to finance the preferred activities using the least amount of time and effort is the goal. Maybe once upon a time, in a land far far away, people took pride in their own work and valued the fruits of very hard labor more than the money they received, but now I feel that the tide has shifted: it's much easier and efficient to be a sinecure. 

MJ's nursing program have many people who aspire to make the most money possible with the least amount of bedside nursing possible (bedside nursing is the harder, more physical work of dealing with the patient). I don't blame them, as the one unspoken agreement in choosing one's profession, but the reason that never gets spoken in job interviews is: "I want a job that pays well," or "I want a job that pays the most money."  Many of these jobs also happen to allow for less interaction with clients and the "get your hands dirty" kind of work. I applaud MJ for entering an industry where there is a lot of work to be done and making a tangible impact on the well-being of people and receiving relatively low financial benefit. It seems to me at some point that those professions that everyone wants will become saturated and the demand for those services will suppress the wages for those jobs, so it may be prudent to "zig" while everyone else is zagging to avoid the traffic jam. 

But even more than nurses and those in the medical experience, lawyers and corporate workers tend to be the biggest sinecures. CEOs! Everyday citizens who have a traditional nine-to-five job must detest the white-collar workers with the big fancy titles working at big fancy buildings (well, before the pandemic) that they get to from their big fancy houses with their big fancy (now electric) cars while taking home a big fancy paycheck. It really is kind of amazing how human society has evolved from rewarding the most courageous hunters and manual laborers (farmers) who put their bodies and lives on the line to now rewarding people who sit in the executive board rooms and conduct meetings and meet with clients. Does seem kind of like what kings used to do, sit on the throne and enjoy the fruits of others' labor. 

Ideally financial incentives will change in a way that allow the hardest jobs to be rewarded financially the most, and the least strenuous jobs to be rewarded the least (perhaps machines will facilitate that process, but then again machines are eliminating replacing manual labor jobs that usually require a lot physical labor, so it's not making the dsired effect), but until then, more and more people will be making the rational decision for them and choosing the path of least resistance that leads to the largest pot of gold. (That's where Youtubers and social media sensations come from! Shortcut to become famous and make riches by looking nice on a beach!)