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Old 2012-04-19, 01:55 PM   [Ignore Me] #29
ItsTheSheppy
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Re: Unions


Originally Posted by Quovatis View Post
No, they don't deserve poverty. But unskilled jobs generally pay low wages because pretty much anyone can do it. That's just how things are. The exact pay is determined by the current economy, not by policy. Artificially paying a worker more than they are really worth (i.e. what high minimum wage laws do for the so-called "shit jobs") doesn't help things. By paying them more than they are worth, the company can hire fewer people, leading to even more unemployment among unskilled workers.

What harm does it do to me if a teacher makes 80k vs 40k? Well, since I, as a taxpayer, indirectly pay for this teacher, it does hurt me. By your logic, why stop at 80k...lets make every government worker a millionaire! The pay for a teacher should be whatever the market dictates. That is, get the best teacher possible for the lowest salary. If that number is 40k or 80k, I don't really care, but the reality seems to be on the lower end. But again, paying a teacher more doesn't necessarily mean you get a better education system. It's more complicated than that.
There's a couple places in your post here where you trip up.

First is labeling something as "unskilled". I'm going to go ahead and guess that you have never worked as a public school teacher, or as a police officer, or as a construction worker or coal miner and so forth. I imagine they would bristle to learn that their jobs, which tend to be very labor-intensive and feature long hours and constant training, are "unskilled". Calling them unskilled is just an incorrectly-assigned euphemism that masks a sentiment; here meant to stand for "Jobs I don't consider as important as mine".

Also, saying that the company paying them "more than they are worth" (again, a distinction you appear to be making without any authority to draw upon) is a fallacy. The company will pay them whatever the company determines is meaningful and necessary. That's why the wages are referred to as "negotiated". The union declares what they want, the company declared what they want, and they work out a deal. Nobody is being held hostage.

I'll thank you to avoid straw men; nobody is saying that teachers should make a million dollars. What we are saying is teachers should be allowed to unify and defend their right to be payed competitive and meaningful wages and to have nice things like health benefits and retirement plans; things most working Americans demand from their places of work. I will tell you straight-up that 35k a year is not a dignified wage to be payed for the amount of skill and effort it takes to be a teacher. If you disagree, I'm sorry, but you're wrong, flat-out. You clearly either don't know what teachers do, or have a very wrongheaded idea of how much effort that job requires, and the value the job brings to the community.

Paying teachers more would make the positions more attractive and increase competition for them. If the teachers who are already there can negotiate higher wages, good for them. If you're concerned about where your taxes are going, look at the budget breakdown of our country and see where your cents on the dollar are going. I'll save you some time: they're mostly going to guns and bullets. Education hardly factors. It should. But it doesn't.
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