Lots of people announcing their attainment of tenure -- I congratulate you all. Under the best of circumstances, it's the result of an incredibly long slog: uncountable hours of under-appreciated work, frequent personal despair, and abiding fear, uncertainty and doubt. A thread!
What does tenure signify? It means you have a guaranteed job for life -- a privilege unimaginable to most Americans. More specifically, it means that your university has given you a guaranteed contract of at least $2m (say, 30yrs x $67k/year), and likely significantly more.
Let's put that in perspective. How many American have an employment contract that guarantees them $2m+? I don't know, but my guess is: a few thousand golden-parachute-wearing corporate executives, a few thousand professional athletes, and... hundreds of thousands of professors.
For everyone else, collecting a salary depends largely on "what have you done for me lately?" We are all "at will" employees, and there are no guarantees. (BTW, this is true even -- in fact, especially -- for the "working one percent.")
I think it's hard for tenured folks to appreciate just how anomalous their employment position is -- after all, for most of y'all, a lot if not most of your friends are in the same position.
