What DO they teach in school?
Whatever happened to teaching at least enough math and economics to enable a high school graduate to find “budget” in the dictionary?
On another site, there was a discussion going on regarding whose fault it is that service has become a misnomer. The union crowd blamed big business. Sigh. Talk about a chicken and egg topic … I’m not sure whether “big business is evil” is the chicken and “union workers don’t understand” is the egg or vice-versa.
The whole topic came up because one fella had taken his wife to the airport for a flight to Florida, and the counter “service” person was incredibly boorish, insensitive and rude. He elaborated and then ended with blaming it on big business and its drive to mechanize and downsize. At this point I should say that I know the guy, and he happens to be a postal employee here in Michigan … so I guess I understand where he’s coming from – although I completely disagree. He’s saying big business is hurting themselves by mechanizing, and I’m thinking that they’re mechanizing to get rid of uncivil servants and survive.
Anyway, the usual topic of pay and bonuses and the like came up, with the useful idiots making much of CEO’s inflated salaries and perks. While reading through the responses, it struck me how poorly public education serves its captives – none of these people had any concept of economics, or basic math, or how a corporation exists, survives and serves its owners. I guess I shouldn’t really be shocked, since the major problem with our US and Canadian educational system is a) allowing unions, and b) allowing liberals to dumb the system down.
One of the constant themes seemed to be this idiot concept of a “living wage” and I have to admit that I’ve never understood how people cannot see the total lack of any value to either a minimum wage or to a “living” wage. How many people are actually lining up at the doors to McDonalds begging to pay twice as much for their unhappy meal just so that the owner can afford to pay Mr. Do-You-Want-Fries-With-That a “living” wage? How many people stop that cashier and demand to pay MORE for whatever is on the conveyor?
Y’know … I’ve paid pretty high taxes all my life. Back when I was a real wage slave, scraping by from paycheque to paycheque, I busted my hump to stand out from the crowd and be the guy that got the overtime or got the promotion. I worked my fanny off (and I didn’t have much of a fanny, being 6 ft tall and weighing 145 lbs … LOL) to pay off my loans and credit cards and get ahead so I wasn’t working for VISA and the CIBC … but working for my future. During that period, I took all the night classes I could find that would advance me; took advantage of every course offered by my employers; kept looking for an edge. I looked around and I said “why?” Why do my taxes go to put someone else’s kids through school, subsidize their higher education, pay for their welfare when they didn’t feel like finishing, pay for their drug rehab programs, pay for their GED, pay for their job skills training, pay for their health care, pay for their incarceration, pay for their rehab, and then pay for their kids so we could start the cycle over again. Why? Why was it my fault they were too friggin’ lazy to work at something for long enough to learn what success was? Why was it my fault they got in to drugs, or gambling, or gangs, or crime? Why were their voluntary choices MY fault. I’ve never actually forced someone to take a job that involved asking “do you want fries with that?”
Why? Why? Why?
OK, back to the discussion on how service has become a misnomer. Our postal union friend blamed the surly service on airline management (Big Business is going to mechanize and outsource all our jobs) and could not see – or wouldn’t admit – that it was a vicious circle. An employer stuck with a union can require that you show up for work, and may even be able to tell you what you can get away with wearing … but they can’t give the service people attitudes. Attitudes are something that you create yourself, based on your personality and environment. And they can certainly be inflicted on the customer, especially in a monopoly environment. Ever noticed the difference in the way you, as a customer, are treated when there’s a choice and when there’s not? I’ve always called it the “little Hitler” syndrome – when you have to use the service of someone who has some authority for a certain period … say that high-school dropout illiterate clown with the uniform, badge and metal sensor rod at the airport … they act as tyrants instead of servants. Does management WANT them to act that way? Hell no. But whether they know or not, what can they do. Union.
The part of the discussions that people appeared to have the hardest time with is job value … which led me to question how the education system was benefiting our society (it obviously is not). Very few of the respondents understood the economics of employment – that one needed to provide value to the employer far in excess of their costs. Most understood wages, less understood the true cost of benefits and almost no one understood the overhead costs of an employee. I have an office, they need to heat it, light it, provide me coffee so I can function, and provide me the tools I need to perform my job. Since they didn’t understand the cost/value proposition, is it any wonder they couldn’t understand the value of a CEO. OK, I’m not defending multi-million dollar salaries (although I wouldn’t turn one down … LOL), but I am defending the much, much (potential) higher value of a CEO. I can influence million$ in my job, and affect several hundred people at a time with what I do – while the CEO can influence billion$ and affect everyone in the company and a great many people outside.
And to take this whole thing further, the CEO knows exactly who he’s working for – in most cases, for the shareholders or owners of the company. The union guy – say a UAW worker – on the other hand, doesn’t seem to know who he works for. Disregard that the paycheque says General Motors, the union guy wears a UAW jacket, a UAW cap, carries a UAW lunch bucket (with a bunch of sugar packets he grabbed so he doesn’t need to buy any this week), and drives a car that has UAW bumper stickers and a UAW sticker on the windshield. Does he ever think of creating value in the company so that eventually it comes around his way again? I rather doubt it – since their allegiance isn’t to their employer.
Do we, as a free market society, have a future? I’d say that unless our education system starts to turn out literate students that were taught by an impartial teacher, we probably do not.
On another site, there was a discussion going on regarding whose fault it is that service has become a misnomer. The union crowd blamed big business. Sigh. Talk about a chicken and egg topic … I’m not sure whether “big business is evil” is the chicken and “union workers don’t understand” is the egg or vice-versa.
The whole topic came up because one fella had taken his wife to the airport for a flight to Florida, and the counter “service” person was incredibly boorish, insensitive and rude. He elaborated and then ended with blaming it on big business and its drive to mechanize and downsize. At this point I should say that I know the guy, and he happens to be a postal employee here in Michigan … so I guess I understand where he’s coming from – although I completely disagree. He’s saying big business is hurting themselves by mechanizing, and I’m thinking that they’re mechanizing to get rid of uncivil servants and survive.
Anyway, the usual topic of pay and bonuses and the like came up, with the useful idiots making much of CEO’s inflated salaries and perks. While reading through the responses, it struck me how poorly public education serves its captives – none of these people had any concept of economics, or basic math, or how a corporation exists, survives and serves its owners. I guess I shouldn’t really be shocked, since the major problem with our US and Canadian educational system is a) allowing unions, and b) allowing liberals to dumb the system down.
One of the constant themes seemed to be this idiot concept of a “living wage” and I have to admit that I’ve never understood how people cannot see the total lack of any value to either a minimum wage or to a “living” wage. How many people are actually lining up at the doors to McDonalds begging to pay twice as much for their unhappy meal just so that the owner can afford to pay Mr. Do-You-Want-Fries-With-That a “living” wage? How many people stop that cashier and demand to pay MORE for whatever is on the conveyor?
Y’know … I’ve paid pretty high taxes all my life. Back when I was a real wage slave, scraping by from paycheque to paycheque, I busted my hump to stand out from the crowd and be the guy that got the overtime or got the promotion. I worked my fanny off (and I didn’t have much of a fanny, being 6 ft tall and weighing 145 lbs … LOL) to pay off my loans and credit cards and get ahead so I wasn’t working for VISA and the CIBC … but working for my future. During that period, I took all the night classes I could find that would advance me; took advantage of every course offered by my employers; kept looking for an edge. I looked around and I said “why?” Why do my taxes go to put someone else’s kids through school, subsidize their higher education, pay for their welfare when they didn’t feel like finishing, pay for their drug rehab programs, pay for their GED, pay for their job skills training, pay for their health care, pay for their incarceration, pay for their rehab, and then pay for their kids so we could start the cycle over again. Why? Why was it my fault they were too friggin’ lazy to work at something for long enough to learn what success was? Why was it my fault they got in to drugs, or gambling, or gangs, or crime? Why were their voluntary choices MY fault. I’ve never actually forced someone to take a job that involved asking “do you want fries with that?”
Why? Why? Why?
OK, back to the discussion on how service has become a misnomer. Our postal union friend blamed the surly service on airline management (Big Business is going to mechanize and outsource all our jobs) and could not see – or wouldn’t admit – that it was a vicious circle. An employer stuck with a union can require that you show up for work, and may even be able to tell you what you can get away with wearing … but they can’t give the service people attitudes. Attitudes are something that you create yourself, based on your personality and environment. And they can certainly be inflicted on the customer, especially in a monopoly environment. Ever noticed the difference in the way you, as a customer, are treated when there’s a choice and when there’s not? I’ve always called it the “little Hitler” syndrome – when you have to use the service of someone who has some authority for a certain period … say that high-school dropout illiterate clown with the uniform, badge and metal sensor rod at the airport … they act as tyrants instead of servants. Does management WANT them to act that way? Hell no. But whether they know or not, what can they do. Union.
The part of the discussions that people appeared to have the hardest time with is job value … which led me to question how the education system was benefiting our society (it obviously is not). Very few of the respondents understood the economics of employment – that one needed to provide value to the employer far in excess of their costs. Most understood wages, less understood the true cost of benefits and almost no one understood the overhead costs of an employee. I have an office, they need to heat it, light it, provide me coffee so I can function, and provide me the tools I need to perform my job. Since they didn’t understand the cost/value proposition, is it any wonder they couldn’t understand the value of a CEO. OK, I’m not defending multi-million dollar salaries (although I wouldn’t turn one down … LOL), but I am defending the much, much (potential) higher value of a CEO. I can influence million$ in my job, and affect several hundred people at a time with what I do – while the CEO can influence billion$ and affect everyone in the company and a great many people outside.
And to take this whole thing further, the CEO knows exactly who he’s working for – in most cases, for the shareholders or owners of the company. The union guy – say a UAW worker – on the other hand, doesn’t seem to know who he works for. Disregard that the paycheque says General Motors, the union guy wears a UAW jacket, a UAW cap, carries a UAW lunch bucket (with a bunch of sugar packets he grabbed so he doesn’t need to buy any this week), and drives a car that has UAW bumper stickers and a UAW sticker on the windshield. Does he ever think of creating value in the company so that eventually it comes around his way again? I rather doubt it – since their allegiance isn’t to their employer.
Do we, as a free market society, have a future? I’d say that unless our education system starts to turn out literate students that were taught by an impartial teacher, we probably do not.
posted by pete in Midland at 11:46
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