MovieChat Forums > Terms of Endearment (1983) Discussion > Flap's occupation and income

Flap's occupation and income

posted 10 years ago by sonofbeach-sheet
7 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I'm not an expert on income and making a living, but Flap was an associate professor at a college in Iowa and later a head of the English department in Nebraska! The whole time they're in Iowa, Emma and Flap are totally lower middle-class. They live in an old dumpy home that's not exactly extravagant and drive the same Dodge station wagon over a 10 year period. Then when they move to Nebraska, the house is definitely a step up, but still not a show stopper.

If Flap was an elementary or high school teacher, I could understand, but college teachers aren't exactly making salaries of less than $50,000 a year, are they? Today's dollars I'm referring to; $50K was a lot in early 1980's.

Or perhaps Flap was spending money on young girls while in those places, hehe!

And what did Aurora do for a living. Was her deceased husband some debutante that left her millions of dollars?

[–] pomopsyche 10 years ago

Professors in the Humanities and Liberal Arts (like English) are the lowest paid faculty. A department chair today typically makes $70,000 at most. Starting salaries are typically $35,000 or so. Raising a family on that one income alone would be tight. And don't forget to factor in student loans payments.

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 10 years ago

Damn, forgot about student loans! I thought that was more of a problem with today's young, since the parents for the past 30 years didn't know how to save!

$70K is good money, but if you live in Alaska, Hawaii, SF, or NYC, that's just enough to live comfortable for a family.

[–] excalibur212 10 years ago

"Alaska, Hawaii, SF, or NYC".... Comparing those 4 cities in the same sentence, clearly you have never lived in those places nor have any idea about the cost of living in 2 of the most expensive cities in the US (SF and NYC)! 70k would be a good living in middle America...in NYC it doesn't even qualify you for a studio apartment in Manhattan ($1800-2000/mo), and is certainly not enough to raise a family of four, unless you wanna live off government assistance! Get out of Nebraska much? LOL

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 10 years ago

Okay, yes, you are right! I live in Alaska. Food is very expensive of course because of shipping fees. And I thought housing here was very expensive until I applied for a potential job in Palo Alto, Ca near SF. I looked up homes in the $300's and there were like 3 listings; all of them old wood frame houses with like 900 square feet! Not a nice old money neighborhood, either!

[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

Excuse me? You don't know what the ef you're talking about. College tuition has skyrocketed over the past 30 years, while wages for the middle and lower class have stagnated. College tuition went up over 1100% in the past 30 years, same with books, while, according to the IRS, wages, adjusted for inflation, have remained the same; $33,000, on average for the lower 90%, in 1988 and $33,000 in 2008. But guess what, earnings for the upper 1% have risen 33% in just the last 20 years. So much for trickle down economics. We've cut their taxes and deregulated banking and business, but that's not enough, they want more.

[–] LordManhammer 8 years ago

Not remotely. Starting salaries in the humanities are around 55-65,000, and by the time someone is promoted to serve as department head, they are likely to be making six figures (maybe twice over).

And someone with a PhD in the humanities will not have student loans, unless they are left over from an undergraduate degree, because doctoral students have funding packages. Actually, at the point in history where flip would have been an undergrad, tuition was incredibly low so most college students could easily cover tuition from part time jobs.

Of course, it's getting harder and harder for professors to find full-time employment, so the $35,000 figure would be accurate and even high for someone cobbling together adjuncting positions.

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[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

He wasn't a full professor in Iowa, but an associate professor, so he wasn't making that much. He said that the move to Nebraska would be a step up the ladder, head of the department, but at the same pay. Kearney St., now the U. of Nebraska - Kearney, was a small, former normal school, a teachers college. Even today there are only about 7,000 students. Comparatively speaking, Des Moines, then population of about 200,000, was a big city and the cost of living would be less in a small town of 20,000. And Flap probably was spending on the skirts.

FYI, a debutante is a female that has reached the age of maturity, so her father couldn't have been one. And they are associated with the well to-do.