Friday, February 25, 2011

Oh To Be A Guy Who Writes About Wish Fulfillment

A headline over at the Wall Street Journal's Op-Ed page:

Oh, To Be a Teacher in Wisconsin

How can fringe benefits cost nearly as much as a worker's salary? Answer: collective bargaining.

There follows the usual article complaining that teachers get what they negotiated. After:
Mr. Costrell is professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas.
Guy, I dunno what your job pays, but you know what to do if your elitist professor job doesn't pay for shit.

11 comments:

  1. I thought for sure I'd visit Casa de Substance tonight and my snotty Voice of Death would be immortalized in some righteous sample. I'm HURT that it hasn't been. (Also pretty mortified by the choad from my hometown.) *facepalm*

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  2. How can fringe benefits cost nearly as much as a worker's salary? Answer: collective bargaining.

    The fact that a national health plan would increase the risk pool and drive down costs seems to elude him.

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  3. I think the thing that galls me is the lie of the headline. Does he actually wish to be a teacher in Wisconsin, rolling in the filthy lucre they pull in over the screaming objections of the school boards and the state? Pretty obviously he does not, just as Jay Nordlinger moans about people getting paid for doing actual work while he hauls in the cash for doing shitty Andy Rooney impressions.

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  4. I said this at driftglass' place, and it is worthwhile repeating nearly anywhere:

    Why is the fact that union members receive decent benefits seen as a criticism of unionized work, and not as a criticism of non-unionized work?

    Are all of us supposed to aspire to crappy wages,lousy hours and non-existent benefits?

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  5. I thought for sure I'd visit Casa de Substance tonight and my snotty Voice of Death would be immortalized in some righteous sample.

    Fewer bus rides of late. Back to the regular routine after the weekend.

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  6. Why is the fact that union members receive decent benefits seen as a criticism of unionized work, and not as a criticism of non-unionized work?

    Right. And speaking from experience people just don't hand out the dollars: it is fucking hard work negotiating for this stuff.

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  7. OK, I know how Republicans and the Kock brothers respond to that question.

    However, I would like to establish ONE SIMPLE RULE for inheritance of more than five million dollars.

    3 parts:

    Plumb a bathroom.

    properly time a car.

    Teach 30 12 year olds quadratic equations.

    If you fail, 99% of your inheritance is forfeit, and you are automatically entered into the nearest tech college.

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  8. How can fringe benefits cost nearly as much as a worker's salary? Answer: collective bargaining.

    obviously the worker's salary is too low.

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  9. obviously the worker's salary is too low.

    The wages are too damn low!

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  10. Are all of us supposed to aspire to crappy wages,lousy hours and non-existent benefits?

    It's a glamorous and exhilarating race to the bottom! Weeeeeeee!

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  11. Idiot.

    If you want to be appreciated, and qualify for all manner of benefits, you must first spend some significant amount of time killing people our leadership does not like.

    It's not that hard, really, except for the fear and horror and endless nightmares. But you get health care and college. So it's a tie.

    Right?

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