Encounter with the Vice President of Sun Oil Company
When I was in graduate school during the late 80’s (probably 1989), our chemistry lab at the University of Texas at Austin hosted a visit from the then Vice President of Sun Oil Company (now Sunoco). The man’s name I cannot recall, he was an old friend of the late Dr. William H. (Bill) Wade, our professor. I knew he was a chemist, since he told me he liked to “put stuff in the bottles”. Wade had to go around the lab and round us grad students up, that’s how clueless we were at the time.
Our VP guest was a nice, very personable older guy. He showed the grad students in the lab some of his notes about employment. He had something very important he wanted to share with us. The graphs showed average salary against years out of college for BS, MS and PhD grads. The curves increased roughly exponentially with time. Then, he said, “Now, let’s add in the effect of inflation.” and he turned to the next page. The same three curves were there, but all of them curved down, roughly exponentially.
I looked at him and blurted, “So we make the most money at the very beginning of our careers. What you are telling us is to start our own businesses.”
He said exactly one word in answer: “Yes.”
I’ve never forgotten the encounter. That was in the late 80’s.
I searched the Internet for graphs like the ones he showed us. I couldn’t find them. I’m going to try to get online data to re-create those charts, preferably including the 28 years since.
In the meantime, the graphs looked something like this:
With no inflation adjustment, the curves did just what one might expect: BS < MS < PhD, and income went up with time. Add in the effect of inflation (and so display real spending power) and the graphs look like this.
Moral of the story: when you are older and need money more desperately, working for someone else actually makes you poorer with time, in terms of your real spending capacity. Don't forget, this happened around 1989. The effects are far worse now.
Does this make you angry? It should.
Our VP guest was a nice, very personable older guy. He showed the grad students in the lab some of his notes about employment. He had something very important he wanted to share with us. The graphs showed average salary against years out of college for BS, MS and PhD grads. The curves increased roughly exponentially with time. Then, he said, “Now, let’s add in the effect of inflation.” and he turned to the next page. The same three curves were there, but all of them curved down, roughly exponentially.
I looked at him and blurted, “So we make the most money at the very beginning of our careers. What you are telling us is to start our own businesses.”
He said exactly one word in answer: “Yes.”
I’ve never forgotten the encounter. That was in the late 80’s.
I searched the Internet for graphs like the ones he showed us. I couldn’t find them. I’m going to try to get online data to re-create those charts, preferably including the 28 years since.
In the meantime, the graphs looked something like this:
With no inflation adjustment, the curves did just what one might expect: BS < MS < PhD, and income went up with time. Add in the effect of inflation (and so display real spending power) and the graphs look like this.
Moral of the story: when you are older and need money more desperately, working for someone else actually makes you poorer with time, in terms of your real spending capacity. Don't forget, this happened around 1989. The effects are far worse now.
Does this make you angry? It should.
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