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This is really unfortunate. At the same time, if you work in a factory where the union has achieved irresponsible deals with the company that ones your factory

This is really unfortunate. At the same time, if you work in a factory where the union has achieved irresponsible deals with the company that ones your factory that are slowly choking that company to death, I do sincerely hope you have the sense to save as much of that money as possible. Not saying that's necessarily the case with the guy in this article, but there aren't a whole lot of people that manage to pull down 100k per year with only a high school education so it seems at least plausible to me.

sailormoon 17y ago
there aren't a whole lot of people that manage to pull down 100k per year with only a high school education I know plenty of people who earn a lot more than that with "only" a HS education. It's about what you can do, not what you supposedly learned at uni - I don't quite understand what people think is so awesome about university anyway. I think what you're trying to get at is that he has no marketable skills outside his narrow experience as a senior machine operator at a specific company. That was indeed a pretty big bet, and looks like he lost. It's a pity, but the days of expecting lifetime employment are over.
ahi 17y ago
$28/hour before overtime for a heavy equipment operator in battery factory (read: blink and kill someone) seems perfectly reasonable to me. He started at $10.76/hour in 1983. His hourly pay increased all of 6 inflation adjusted dollars ($10.76 in 1983 = $22.13 in 2007) over the past quarter century.
- jdminhbg 17y ago
  $28/hour would work out to $56k/year, before overtime. He'd have to work a lot of overtime to get to $100k.
  - ahi 17y ago
    From the WSJ article: "'It's sad,' says Mr. Crane, who had been earning about $28 per hour at Delco, before overtime." He could get to $100k relatively easily with a 60 hour work week which is perfectly reasonable. $28x2000 + $28x1.5x1000 gets him to $98k, and holidays usually mean better than time and a half.

sailormoon 17y ago

there aren't a whole lot of people that manage to pull down 100k per year with only a high school education I know plenty of people who earn a lot more than that with "only" a HS education. It's about what you can do, not what you supposedly learned at uni - I don't quite understand what people think is so awesome about university anyway. I think what you're trying to get at is that he has no marketable skills outside his narrow experience as a senior machine operator at a specific company. That was indeed a pretty big bet, and looks like he lost. It's a pity, but the days of expecting lifetime employment are over.

ahi 17y ago

$28/hour before overtime for a heavy equipment operator in battery factory (read: blink and kill someone) seems perfectly reasonable to me. He started at $10.76/hour in 1983. His hourly pay increased all of 6 inflation adjusted dollars ($10.76 in 1983 = $22.13 in 2007) over the past quarter century.

jdminhbg 17y ago
$28/hour would work out to $56k/year, before overtime. He'd have to work a lot of overtime to get to $100k.
- ahi 17y ago
  From the WSJ article: "'It's sad,' says Mr. Crane, who had been earning about $28 per hour at Delco, before overtime." He could get to $100k relatively easily with a 60 hour work week which is perfectly reasonable. $28x2000 + $28x1.5x1000 gets him to $98k, and holidays usually mean better than time and a half.