In my never ending journey to find jobs that are worst than mine, I came across a business week article which can be found at (http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/sep2006/ca20060914_736742.htm).  Their theory was in order for a job to be truly bad they must meet the following criteria:

• typically high-risk
• high-pressure
• low-glamour
• physically (or psychologically) demanding

So what job do they think is one of the worst?  Crab Fishing.  Personally, I am leaning towards the sewage inspector.  Clearly working is sewage is more repulsive than being a crap fisherman but at least the chances of dying are significantly reduced, unless you run into an alligator.  And sewage inspectors make 20% more money than crab fisherman on average.

Crab fishing is one of the worst jobs around, no matter which way you slice it. The short fishing season for crab—and the high potential payoff—means the pace onboard a crabbing vessel is grueling.

Veteran crab fisherman Cade Smith, who now works on land selling Alaska seafood through his Web site, FishermansExpress.com, says he and his fellow deckhands routinely put in brutal 21-hour shifts launching and retrieving the 800-pound crab pots. Injuries are common, and with the weather conditions in the stormy, icy Bering Sea among the worst in the world, falling overboard is common, too. Statistically, fishing is the most dangerous job in the country, with a fatality rate some 30 times higher than average.

The primary allure? The money, of course. "Everyone wants to brag when they hit it big," says Smith, "And that was what you used to hear about around the bars of Dutch Harbor, a town in Alaska's Aleutian Islands." There was always a top boat where the crew members raked in $50,000 during the three- to five-day king crab season—or $100,000 for the longer snow crab season.

Of course, most fishermen did not make this kind of money.  Smith's worst season left him with a net loss of $500, after expenses. "But the guys that didn't do well weren't so eager to talk about it," he says. And while a new quota system put in place has caused upheaval in the crabbing industry, and wages have fallen somewhat as a result, it's unlikely that the new system will fully put the get-rich-quick stories to rest anytime soon

Crab fishing isn't the only way to make a buck doing what most people won't.