Steps to Prosperity?

   Personnel Today recently conducted a survey of 2,000 personnel officers and found some weighty results. Most of those polled said they would prefer to offer employment to those of "normal weight". Half of the respondents believed that obesity affects productivity and that obese individuals lack self-discipline. The survey also found that 1 in 10 personnel officers would not want to send an overweight employee to meet a client. Even more interesting, 1 in 10 also think obesity constitutes grounds for dismissal. It would seem that for those who are weight-challenged, one of the first steps to take toward getting that dream job is to push themselves away from the dinner table a little sooner.
   Another suggestion being made for those anxious to make their way along the path to prosperity a little more quickly is to go regularly to a place of worship. This little nugget comes from Jonathan Gruber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to Gruber, "doubling the frequency of attendance leads to a 9.1 increase in household income...". If that's caught your interest, you might want to purchase a copy of Gruber's paper so you can read the rest of it and get busy increasing your income. Of course, the more people who are interested enough to buy copies, the more Gruber's income will increase. You don't think this is part of Gruber worshipping at the altar of the almighty dollar, do you?
    I think Mr. Gruber needs his head read. Religiosity has naught to do with income. If it really did, then all of the poverty stricken who regularly fill the pews and benches would be going home to small mansions instead of to the hovels they presently call home. I think Gruber is wandering around lost somewhere in left field. Either that, or he's using all the wrong terms for the concepts he's trying to get across.
    Religiosity? no. Social climbing? Yes. I knew of a couple once whom Gruber should meet. They bought a home in a smaller Ontario town, moving there from Toronto. The first thing they did was to research the local churches, looking for the one with the biggest turn-out each Sunday. When they decided they had identified the one, they immediately became two of the flock's most faithful church-goers, never missing a Sunday, or an opportunity to meet the locals. They wasted no time on anyone who looked like they were attired in anything less than the best, but lavished all their attention instead on those who seemed to be "important". They fawned all over those people, seeking invitations and handing them out, too. They made the connections they set out to, and then a strange coincidence took place. Their income did increase, as did their place in the community social circles, but their attendance gradually trailed off. They never darken the doors of the church these days. Religiosity? Yeah, right.