Architecture Debating and the State of the Industry (actually ANY industry)

UPDATE: Read the post below before checking out this link. Pixie continues the discussion with a great point, INDIVIDUALISM, which is a decidedly UN-Progressive idea.

I read quite a few architecture and construction blogs to get a feel on the state of the industry around the country and, to a lesser extent, the world. Most of the blogs concentrate on the "philosophy" of my chosen profession, but a couple delve into the actual practice. Those that cover literal practice are infinitely more interesting to me, but you have to keep an eye on the philosophy of anything to attempt to predict the future.

Yes, I know, y'all friggin' hate philosophy posts.

Anyhoo, Why Architects Drink is one of my favorite industry blogs, because it combines discussion of the actual work while covering a young architect fleshing out her career/personal life and attacking the problems of our industry. Since politics are really not the focus of her blog, I really have no clue what her personal ideology is, but architect, young, female kinda lends one to believe that she would fall much further toward the end of the "Progressive" line than I do and I certainly take no issue with that.

On this post, Mile High Pixie answers an e-mail she received from someone that is contemplating joining Crazyland. I commented and then a debate started about the length of time that someone should contribute to their job.** BLAM! Huge philosophical differences between me and most other commenters became utterly apparent.

The main gist of the debate came from Pixie's discussion of the nature of our business. We work seventy hour weeks through projects that are under-staffed and then sit idle other times trying to find stuff to do. This kinda has something to do with the weather and the envelope we have for building, but the main thing I notice is that architects are notoriously BAD, BAD, BAD businessmen. I can say from experience this utter failure in business administration comes from the fact that most architects are usually artists that want mainly to do the design portion of the work and care very little for turning out the actual end product, THE BUILDING.

Of course, with ARTIST comes a unique, stereotypical philosophy. Not only that, but those in my profession tend to think of themselves as intellectuals and certainly that brings still more evidence into the nature of the ideology of architects today. Sometimes it is a rude awaking to an intern that enters the field to find that they must produce an actual building in the end. They have been taught throughout college that the design work is the most important part and they have no concept of the billable time that is involved. Design is only around 25% (or less in my case) of our fee, so it is only a quarter of the receivable amount associated with a project. At an eight percent fee, design time should be at a premium, but with the artist mentality, that is SO usually not the case.

Remember, we are in business to make a freaking profit and profit is GOOD.

Anyhoo, the discussion was centered around quality of life and the ability to separate work and personal time, so I shall address that and the ideology associated with that.

In our country, business owners are FORCED to pay a certain amount for labor, they are FORCED to provide certain levels of safety, and soon, they are going to FORCED to provide a minimum of benefits. These rules apply to most businesses equally and government has become a huge, wasteful drain on all industries. Bottom line, making steel is a dangerous industry. If you want to avoid that danger, do NOT go into the steel making business, but government insists on making steel making as safe as office work. Safety standards should not be regulated by our government. Salary requirements should not be regulated by our government. Benefits above salary should not be regulated by our government. BUT THEY ALL ARE.

If you want to see the end result of these moves by government, LOOK AT DETROIT. Using these very same concepts promoted by labor unions, the automotive industry in the United States was effectively destroyed. But, with the incrementalism that the federal government uses, no one really notices the CHANGE. Of course, if the proposed increase in withholding tax is actually instituted, everyone's paycheck shall decrease and that SHALL be noticed. Maybe those wage slaves shall finally get enough of the federal government meddling in things the government does not understand.

And every single bit of this government interference was to increase the quality of life for NON-PRODUCTIVE time. The side effect was to reduce the quality of PRODUCTIVE time. This should be apparent to anyone that is intellectually curious. What this issue ultimately boils down to is that any time you have the opinion that a company is in business to provide a certain quality of life for the employees, you miss the ONLY REASON for a business to exist. PROFIT. Or TO CREATE WEALTH. Not only for the owners of the business, but also to provide incentives and additional wages, equipment, and benefits for the employees.

Again, the differences are all too apparent to someone that actually takes the time to study what is in actually fact and what is ideology. And yes, liberal ideology is WRONG.

Please take the time to comment.

** Forty hours a week represents fully 24% of the hours in a week. Weekly labor is limited to less than a quarter of your week without additional compensation. WTF?!?!?!