The end of college? UPS drivers now paid $170K - more than doctors and lawyers . . .

Photo above - this is NOT an official UPS driver. Screen cap from "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective". So no lawsuits were filed for trademark infringement or defamation . . .

UPS drivers’ new $170k per year deal shows that unions (and Joe Biden) may just save the middle class after all (yahoo.com)

Quick - which sounds like a better deal to you? $170,000 in student loans, or $170,000 a year as a UPS driver? Don't overthink this - it's not a trick question. (See link above).

All across the country, mothers are walking back 3 generations of advice to their daughters. Don't chase after doctors, lawyers, and GS18 government officials responsible for supplier contracts (they get a lot of gifts/bribes). The new hot career: Trucking. You might also want to consider welding (100,000 vacant positions?) Oil Rig workers (Ukrainian roustabouts are flocking to North Dakota for jobs, to send money back home to their needy families). And Air Traffic Controllers - 20% of those jobs are vacant. That's why there are so many mid-air near misses the past year or so. Ironic question - if the media is going to give Biden credit for the $170,000 UPS contract, should he also get the credit for all the unfilled air traffic controller jobs? Yahoo possibly needs to think more consistently about economic questions like these, no?

I cannot say for sure that my UPS driver earns more than my doctor. But she (the doctor) gives every indication of penury. Drives a Toyota Corolla (not the costlier hybrid Prius), and shops at Winn Dixie for groceries like me – not Whole Foods. Possibly her student loans are implicated in her desultory lifestyle choices? She seems okay with it, though.

I KNOW for sure my last attorney makes less than a UPS driver. His other case (in addition to helping me sue my insurance company after my car was stolen) was as a court appointed attorney defending some carjacker. It's funny because it's true. His zone is apparently grand theft auto and vehicular manslaughter.

Back to the UPS drivers. That $170,000 figure isn't just salary of course. It's evidently $120,000 base wage and about $50,000 in health benefits and retirement contributions. But still . . . if I had $50,000 in health care coverage at no expense to me, I probably could pick a more upscale HMO, no?

Yellow Freight - America's oldest trucking company, age 99 - filed for bankruptcy over the weekend. 30,000 union drivers hit the bricks, just like that. Teamsters. On Tuesday, the Teamsters win their whopping $170,000 contract with UPS. When god shuts one door, he opens another, eh? Bonus factor – most UPS deliveries are local, not long haul, like Yellow Freight. Aspiring UPS drivers are probably asking - can I use weed or is there some drug test involved? We're about to find out, I guess. All the stoners in my neighborhood swear pot is less dangerous than liquor, and that they're high (on pot, not booze) all the time when they make a run to the vape shop.

When you ask someone "what's your job" these days (teacher, nurse, police officer, coder) their salaries fall in a certain range. Begin at $35,000, mid-point $50,000, and a few up around $75,000. If you're an imported coder from India or Pakistan, you'll be at the lower end. Same thing if you're an immigrant nurse from the Philippines or . . . Ireland [!!!!] You may get your nursing degree for “free” in some countries, but you spend a lifetime paying your government back through substandard NHS wages. Doctors in England (beginners) went on strike a couple of years ago. They were getting about $22,000 a year. But these ladies and gentlemen WERE fresh out of med school, and presumably overworked and not yet informed about their importance to society.

I thought there used to be a song with the lyrics (or title) “Don't marry a truck drivin' man . . .” Couldn't find it. Google has a list of “100 top truck driving songs”. Yeah . . THAT many. Those written from the male point of view are clustered around variations of “white line fever”. Those written from women's perspective are full of heartbreak over their husband's cheating ways. Trucker culture heavily overlaps with country music - reason enough not to marry a trucker, for some of us. I'm not saying UPS drivers listen to C&W as their vans creep from door to door, though. I've heard some pretty bouncy stuff coming from inside. And some pretty despicable, violent, hatin'-on-women-rap.

I'm not hatin' on UPS drivers. I'm simply adjusting my expectations in 21st century America. Do I want to marry a teacher, a policeman, a coder . . . or a UPS driver? But then, what would we talk about after making uh-uhs?

I'm just sayin' . . .