"I don't understand how it happened that someone shaking their behind on TikTok earns in a day more than I make in a month saving human lives," laments a surgeon with 20 years of experience in a private conversation. And in this simple phrase crystallizes the entire absurdity of the modern labor market. A world where the market valuation of professional contribution has turned upside down, where traditionally respected professions are systematically devalued financially while maintaining their nominal prestige. Welcome to the era of financial desacralization of intellectual professions.
Sacred Knowledge Priest or Hired Worker?
For many centuries, doctors, teachers, and scientists formed the intellectual elite of society, deservedly receiving not only public respect but also material prosperity. Representatives of these professions were true priests of knowledge, holders of the keys to a better life. But something went wrong. At some point, society decided that it was enough to just give them standing ovations, but to pay them – excuse me?
A strange metamorphosis occurred: from elite professionals possessing exclusive knowledge and skills, doctors, teachers, and scientists turned into ordinary "public sector employees" – eternally complaining, constantly underfunded, and somehow obligated to work "for the idea." A doctor in a luxury car became almost an indecent sight, as if treating people and material well-being should be mutually exclusive concepts.
Market vs. Value: A Battle with a Foregone Conclusion
Neoliberal economists will smugly nod their heads and explain this phenomenon with the "invisible hand of the market" – supposedly there's demand, supply, and everything is fairly distributed according to economic laws. But let's face the truth: market mechanisms are pathologically blind to the assessment of public good.
A system where a stock market speculator, moving virtual numbers from one column to another, receives ten times more than a neurosurgeon developing new methods of saving human lives, is not just unfair – it is deadly dangerous for social progress. It's like evaluating an artist by the weight of their paintings rather than their content.
"What does fairness have to do with it?" – a free market adept would wonder. "Shouldn't everyone receive exactly as much as people are willing to pay for their services?" Sounds logical if not for one critical factor: the deferred value of intellectual labor. The results of a teacher's, scientist's, or doctor's work can only be fully assessed decades later, when their long-term impact becomes evident.
Symbolic Capital: Luxury Currency Not Convertible to Food
"But doctors and scientists enjoy enormous respect!" – someone might object. Indeed, society generously bestows intellectual professions with symbolic capital – respect, honor, status. The problem is that this capital is practically not convertible into real benefits. Try paying for a mortgage with public recognition or buying groceries with the "immense gratitude" of patients.
A paradoxical situation arises: "noble" professions receive compliments instead of compensation. Such substitution of material goods with symbolic ones is one of the most sophisticated mechanisms of exploitation in the modern economy. "You don't work for money, but for people!" – this phrase has become a universal justification for the systematic underfunding of entire economic sectors.
"Calling" as an Instrument of Economic Blackmail
"Teaching is a calling", "Doctor is not a profession, but a way of life", "A true scientist works not for money" – such mantras have become the perfect manipulation tool, allowing the legitimization of unworthy payment for intellectual labor. The labor market has turned "calling" into an exploitative instrument that effectively convinces specialists to work for pennies.
Interestingly, nobody tells investment bankers that they should manage capital "by calling" and moderate their financial appetites. Nobody convinces corporate CEOs that their multi-million bonuses should give way to moral satisfaction from a job well done. "Calling" somehow becomes a mandatory attribute only of those professions that society doesn't want to pay adequately.
Doctors, educators, and scientists found themselves in a professional trap: by choosing the path of learning and development in their field, they automatically sign an unspoken contract where their dedication to the profession is used as a justification for economic discrimination. "You love your job, why do you need a big salary?" – this logic is absurd, but unfortunately effective.
System Failure: When the Market Stimulates Intellectual Degradation
We have built an economic system that systematically undervalues and de-incentivizes intellectual labor, education, and healthcare. At the same time, this same system generously rewards speculation, manipulation of public opinion, and the creation of the appearance of activity. It's no wonder that more and more talented young people choose careers not where they could bring maximum benefit to society, but where they can get maximum reward with minimum effort.
This systemic imbalance leads to the gradual intellectual degradation of society, when the brightest minds go into financial speculation and the entertainment industry instead of solving humanity's global problems. Worse, the education system itself, instead of resisting this trend, begins to adapt to it, lowering requirements and turning into a diploma-issuing service.
A doctor who, after ten years of education and specialization, receives less than a middle manager without higher education, is not just a private injustice. It's a symptom of a serious disease of the entire economic system, in which public utility and financial reward move in opposite directions.
When Desacralization Becomes a Threat to Civilization
The financial desacralization of intellectual professions is not just a matter of labor market injustice. It's an existential challenge for all human development. A society that doesn't value its doctors, teachers, and scientists inevitably degrades, whatever technological toys it invents.
We have created a paradoxical situation where those who really move humanity forward receive crumbs, while those who create financial bubbles or entertainment content bathe in luxury. This is not just unfair – it's an evolutionary dead end threatening to throw us back in development.
The gap between social significance and financial reward has reached such proportions that it can no longer be attributed to temporary market fluctuations. We are observing a systemic failure of the capitalist model, unable to adequately assess and stimulate socially useful activity.
Time to Rethink Values: Financial Resacralization
To reverse this dangerous trend, a fundamental reassessment of the entire system of financial reward is needed. We need mechanisms that take into account not only the short-term market value but also the long-term social value of various professions. Without such a rethinking, we risk losing entire generations of potential scientists, doctors, and educators who simply see no point in entering these professions.
Perhaps we should think about the deflation of professional recognition – a process in which public recognition becomes less accessible but more convertible into real benefits. Instead of inflating praise and gratitude that devalue the work of intellectuals, it's time for society to express its appreciation in a language that the market understands – the language of money.
Today we stand at a crossroads. We can continue to move along the path of financial desacralization of intellectual professions, inevitably sliding towards a new Middle Ages with a technological facade. Or we can find ways to connect market mechanisms with the true values of human development. The economy, in its essence, should be a tool for social progress, not its brake.
In this context, the emergence of new financial instruments, such as DeflationCoin, is particularly interesting as they potentially can become a means for creating fairer systems for evaluating professional contribution, where intellectual labor will be not only respected but also generously rewarded. Perhaps it is in the transition to a deflationary model of values that lies the solution to the problem of financial desacralization of professions.