Being a Slave to the Past

Professor's salary: approximately 90 thousand TL.

To earn this salary, or rather to be appointed, the professor has put in years of effort (for some this is debatable, but let's skip that for now).

Many projects are carried out under the guidance of professors, and a lot of work is accomplished through Industry-University cooperation. Even more could be done.

The professor earns this right as a result of their past work.

Someone who has completed 12 years of schooling, plus 4 years of undergraduate, 3 years of master's, and 6 years of doctoral studies can become a professor within 20 years after high school if they are hardworking enough and lucky. It's easy to say "20 years".

Let's consider someone who has acquired property somehow. Inheritance, work, savings, lottery... Whatever happened, they could very well own a house worth 10 million TL today. And of course, it is possible for them to sell this property. Let's say they sold it. In about 40 days, banks provide 500 thousand TL in deposit interest.

Accordingly, a citizen with 10 million TL can live on 50 thousand TL in line with TÜİK's recommendations and employ at least 4 professors with the remainder of the interest. Cem Yılmaz's joke has become reality: Our citizen can call professors to their home, throw money around, and shout, "Tell me something, damn it!"

Let's say you don't have that kind of accumulated money, but you are academically successful. You have earned the right to join the ranks of professors who cannot choose their own rector and who resist this every day. Hooray! You are now a professor at Boğaziçi University. There is only one problem. You don't live in Istanbul and you need to move somewhere near Boğaziçi University. Have you got yourself into trouble? With a professor's salary, you will try to both move and pay your rent regularly while trying to survive in Istanbul. Even working at Boğaziçi University doesn't save you.

Let's say you are a banker! You succeeded in the management exams and you are moving to a big city. You will be mediating the banking transactions of depositors who earn in one day what you earn in a month. How will you live? Won't your pride be crushed?

Let's say you are a teacher. You couldn't land a job with the state. You will work in private educational institutions for less than the minimum wage. You won't make a peep! A friend of yours said, "Think of it like an internship." You have internalized it. You have normalized the exploitation of the intern and them not earning money.

Does a person do this? They do! They absolutely do! They are already doing it! Let's agree on one thing, friends! We do it! We gladly become slaves to the past. The deposit interest on 10 million TL, which is the equivalent of accumulated labor from once upon a time, is worth 4 of our professors! Who are we anyway?

Millions of citizens have internalized all of this. We have gotten used to it all. Unemployment, debt, inability to pay debts, insanity, suicides... We have gotten used to all of it! Thank God we are not as a nation in poverty and misery, ruined and exhausted. Otherwise, what would have become of us? God forbid!