THE CALCULUS OF CRAZY:
COMPENSATION FOR THE MOST DANGEROUS JOB IN THE WORLD

CURRICULUM VITAE

This page came about because of the efforts of one of the founders to figure out how to put together a CV, which is a fancy word for resume.
Almost NONE of this person's experiences were within the realm of the mentionable at a job interview.
The resume detailed a journey from a successful student with a bright future
to an invisible, beaten up cheap seats caregiver of the most rejected class of people imaginable.
NO CYBERNETICS HERE

Being an Alaskan crab fisherman is NOT the most dangerous job in the world.
This is, because the danger never ever lets up and it is predicated on something which can not be anticipated.
No cybernetic for cray cray.

THE COST

We do not know how to solve this problem but we need to put it on the table.
It is the problem of compensation for a particular class of veterans of mental disease: the caretakers who are so often overlooked by the profession and are not paid at all.

Mental illness is the number one health care cost in America. But understandably, nobody wants to discuss it.
We can talk about nuclear war, or cancer, or immigration, or even aging, but this devastation is simply too awful.
And that makes it more difficult to address the healing process--, and the numbers.
Leon's Landslide is very well acquainted with this issue.

THE COMIC RELIEF

In the film "The Professional", the mentally ill character of Norman Stansfield was played by Gary Oldman.
Oldman did what is often the only possible way to deal with an unimaginable hell.
He made Stansfield a psychotic clown. Laughter is an excellent, effective medicine.
But it isn't money. And we can't laugh away the grinding cycle of poverty which is one of the consequences of life-long mental disease.

THE COMPENSATION CALCULATION

What is often missing from discussions on the cost of mental health care is that the profession is more often than not unable to help the sick person, and the default is the family.
However, unlike the professional who is highly paid even when they fail to find a solution, the family is stuck.

Taking care of a dangerously mentally ill family member is a 24 hour a day, seven day a week, "you don't get to opt out" job.
According to the typical legal calculation of monetary value, therefore, this labor is worth:
one salary a year plus two overtime salaries,(for the week) plus one extra six day week of double time, since the weekend is 48 hours.
Moreover, this job truly IS the most dangerous job in America but if the mentally ill person is in the family, there is ZERO COMPENSATION.
In other words, in the eyes of the law and society, it is worth nothing at all.
There are also innumerable other factors which in a court of law under normal circumstances would warrant staggering damanges.
And then, when the caregiver is granted any sort of reprieve, even a tiny one, they may embark on a course of self denial and study which is the only avenue open to them to solve the problem.