Joe Therrien, an OWS activist and semi-employed drama teacher, has become infamous since the Nation included him in an article on "The Audacity of Occupy Wall Street," which began like this:

A few years ago, Joe Therrien, a graduate of the NYC Teaching Fellows program, was working as a full-time drama teacher at a public elementary school in New York City. Frustrated by huge class sizes, sparse resources and a disorganized bureaucracy, he set off to the University of Connecticut to get an MFA in his passion—puppetry. Three years and $35,000 in student loans later, he emerged with degree in hand, and because puppeteers aren’t exactly in high demand, he went looking for work at his old school. The intervening years had been brutal to the city’s school budgets—down about 14 percent on average since 2007. A virtual hiring freeze has been in place since 2009 in most subject areas, arts included, and spending on art supplies in elementary schools crashed by 73 percent between 2006 and 2009. So even though Joe’s old principal was excited to have him back, she just couldn’t afford to hire a new full-time teacher. Instead, he’s working at his old school as a full-time “substitute”; he writes his own curriculum, holds regular classes and does everything a normal teacher does. “But sub pay is about 50 percent of a full-time salaried position,” he says, “so I’m working for half as much as I did four years ago, before grad school, and I don’t have health insurance…. It’s the best-paying job I could find.”

A lot of folks think this is an absolute hoot, the thinking being "What kind of jackass goes into debt thinking an MFA in puppetry is going to pay off, and then rages against the machine when it turns out it doesn't?" ("What kind of tone-deaf progressive editor makes this the lede to their story on the courage and righteousness of the OWS protestors?" is a better question.)

I'm tickled to see Michael Barone, nobody's idea of a hippy-lover, standing up for the guy:

I think that in quitting a tenured job [Therrien] was giving up security and taking a risk to achieve his dream.

He presumably felt that he could be a good enough puppeteer to make a living at it and could find a job doing so. That's the sort of thing the late Steve Jobs told Stanford graduates that they ought to do.

Therrien didn't know that we were going to have a financial collapse in fall 2008 and that a lengthy recession would follow. Neither did most economists -- including the very good ones in the Obama administration -- and most people in banking and financial services.

Or perhaps Therrien didn't understand that a lengthy recession could reduce the market demand for puppetry, as fewer people could afford tickets or make generous gifts.

I have long thought that one of the wonderful things about our affluent society is that more and more people could find jobs doing things they love.

Barone goes on:

In the America of our time a lot of people make livings as actors, musicians and, yes, as puppeteers. I think it's a safe assumption that they get more satisfaction and sense of accomplishment from their work than they would as file clerks or factory workers with significantly higher pay.

Therrien bet $35,000 that he would be able to find work he loved, and I think well of him for it even though he has at least for the moment lost his gamble.