Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]langhans wrote: > Believe me is is NOT that they TRY to be everything to everybody, it > is that society is FORCING more and more rolls on the schools I assume you meant that society is forcing more ROLES on the schools... > After all, teachers love kids or they > wouldn't be doing their job, since God knows the could earn more > money elsewhere. Some could, others could not. My wife has a relative in New Jersey who teaches in an inner city Newark school--obviously not an easy environment, but she is certainly rewarded financially to a much greater extent than if she were teaching in a regular suburb public school, or in most other jobs she could realistically get with her degree in education (let's face it, it is one of the easier majors at most U.S. universities). Yes, teachers are extremely important, as are nurses, firefighters etc., but how are we to decide whether they earn "too little?" What does "too little" mean in this context? In a market economy such matters are decided by supply and demand (yes, I know that there are unions and other factors that have an influence on the wage formation, but fundamentally my statement still stands). The reason a corporate VP earns more than a teacher is that there are fewer people capable of performing that job relative to the demand for such people. Nothing else. And that is also the reason why a top-class NBA player earns more than a corporate VP. It has nothing to with the intrinsic value of their work in any moral sense. It is simply a capitalist economy at work. In connection with the on-and-off firefighter strikes in the UK the employers (i.e. local governments) have pointed out that there are on average 40 applications for each opening--hardly an indication that firefighters are "underpaid." Contrast that with the severe shortage of nursing staff in the UK. Based on this, I would say that UK firefighters earn enough, while UK nurses earn too little. Again, nothing to do with whose work is harder or more valuable to society, simply a matter of supply and demand. Nathan - -- Nathan Wajsman Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland e-mail: wajsman@webshuttle.ch mobile: +41 78 732 1430 Photo-A-Week: http://www.wajsman.com/indexpaw2003.htm General photo site: http://www.wajsman.com/index.htm - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html