quote:Originally posted by Sol System: You have as much of a right to a job as anyone else. But wages are determined by the market.
Blue collar jobs should pay well because they are unpleasent, unpopular, back-breaking, and without them civilization would fall to pieces. Surely you should know this? I'm sure that Toronto without programmers looks a heck of a lot nicer than Toronto without garbagemen.
I'd be more than willing to take that bet. Toronto went more than a week without garbage collection. I'd like to see it go a week without electricity.
The main reason why garbagemen, postal workers, etc. have inflated wages is because they have a strong union and can go on strike whenever they feel like. Unfortunately, the engineers and programmers that operate your power system aren't nearly as well organised, many of them are classified as emergency workers and can't go on strike in the first place, and if that wasn't bad enough, a fair number of them are bound by professional oaths.
Blackmailing society isn't a luxury that everyone has, until then....saying as a blanket rule that "wages are determined by the market" is a bit near-sighted.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Only if everyone has a union. The laws for what types of workers are allowed to unionise/hold strikes are dictated by politics, not by the market.
Actually, Wraith makes an interesting point. Someone should do research on how the wages for firefighters (which go through arbitration here, in lieu of strikes) compare to those of garbage collectors. That should be interesting.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
As a market share of about 1/6,900,000,000 of the total world market I would prefer firefighters, medical personel, police officers, and military personel not be able to strike.... Lawyers, okay, but some just can't....
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
What, are we up to seven billion already?
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Ah, now I understand your confusion. See, this isn't exactly what they mean when they say, "the government is for sale."
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
And I did not mean to indicate a foolishly cynical money=everything equation. Just that governments are part of the market.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Sol: Okay then. What about Accountants? Teachers? Journalists? All make about the same as Computer programmers. I am only saying that it is unfair for people who go for these and similar positions to find that they make just as much as garbagemen.
Ritten: A Garbageman is a job that requires little skill (other than driving, but hey, most people do drive). So a job that requires little skill should be paid as such. Just as patty flippers get paid minimum wage.
Mucus: Thank you for your defense. It is for these reasons I believe that Unions either should be banned or have their powers seriously limited. And yes, I believe Firefighters deserve more than Garbageman.
If you guys have watched Dilbert, you'll know that the Garbageman in the cartoon gets more respect than Dilbert does. And Dilbert gets the treatment shown in my sig and title.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I get the feeling you've never had a physically difficult job.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
How much skill has to be invested to be a Garbageman? Very little. Yes, it's a physical Job. But so is the Army, Police, and Firefighters. And they have to go through a lot more than a simple garbageman. Even Warehouse Stock boys work more than a Garbageman does. And they get far less. Fair?
How much skill has to be invested to be a Computer Programmer, Accountant, Teacher, Journalist? Tuition fees and emotional blowout that is astronomical compared to a Garbageman.
The next time a Garbageman demands wages only you can dream of, don't come complaining here.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
You are so right, and not jaded or prejudiced in any way, and we should all believe you becaue you are not incredibly demeaning or condescending and not seeing beyond your own situation and feel that your own situation covers all situations ever and we should not even consider alternatives and programmers are much more important, demanded and sexy than garbagemen.
Filthy garbagemen who have no schooling or "emotional trauma" from going to school.
They don't deserve to even get paid, lousy horsefuckers and hillbillies and uneducated pieces of shit they are.
If you want money and nothing but, maybe you should have saved the money for tuition and became a garbageman and retired after three years.
Because they make, what millions a year?
Comic strips are perhaps not the most accurate source of social information available.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
Printer-friendly view of this topic
