Re: Crappy Pay - WHY???

>Responding to msg by sgp7@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Scott Gladstone
>Paterson) on
>
>>How do you evaluate the compensation of an artist's
>>work?  How do you evaluate the compensation of an
>>engineers's work?

Is there some hallowed ground that artist get to operate on that is some
how exempt from the limitations (and opportunities) of captial?  Witness
the recent case of Joan Collins, possbily more instructive for architects
than any slim attractive volume of underresearched archi-blather by ivy
league high minded types that spin and spin in hopes that you don't notice
from where the clients and income arises for endless musings on the fall of
Icarus or the wonders of the Timaeus.

Captial, in its application, _is_ transparent (it is the motivations and
contracts that obfuscate).  Value is negotiable.  A coleague member showed
me his timesheet this week, what with 80hrs of reg and 87ot, and I asked
him if he realized he had effectively taken a 50% pay cut.  Overtime as a
job cost _is_ 0, but only for the owner.  Your time is your time.  Savvy
owners push schedules to drive down negotiable costs and archi's pass this
lamentable situation on to those who can afford it even less, those eager
and passionate out-of-grad schoolers who end up creating and underwriting
profit for major corporations and archi's.  You _aren't_  creating
buildings or something that no one else does.  You are creating wealth for
others, just like every wage worker under capitalism.  The profitablilty of
an architectural firm derives _solely_ from keeping down labor costs.
Funny that the same professors who exhort you to work inhumane hours in
school to refine your drawing skills (you think those mammoth
representation requirements are intended to increase your design and
thinking skills?) are the same ones who hire you a few years later and pay
you $18K a year (you are after all interning, now to learn all the things
you didn't have time for in school, glossing over the garbage tech,
structure and practice classes taught by hacks who had no respect for
design, right, those pathetic guys who kept trying to convince you that
architecture was a business, hah, what do they know?) and want 25hrs a week
of overtime.

It does well to keep in mind that you can make a living doing this, as long
as you realize that someone else is making a better one, whether that is
your boss (if that is the bargain you strike) or your client.  Basic
economics dictate that our position in the chain of development dollars in
real estate (which is mostly what we do) allows for very thin margins.
Lacking legislation or an elevated cultural status limits our neogtioable
position.  If you had the leverage to combat this, you wouldn't be worrying
about how much you make anyways.





nic musolino
subject@xxxxxxxx
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