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Irrational or not, my opinion is that the world would be 1000% better if we could somehow create an economy that rewarded young people for doing research into a

by jeromec 16y ago

Irrational or not, my opinion is that the world would be 1000% better if we could somehow create an economy that rewarded young people for doing research into antibiotics half as well as it rewards them for creating social-networking widgets. I agree. It's also a shame that a professional basketball player makes around 100 times more than a professional school teacher. That's just how it is.

hdctambien 16y ago
Professional athletes making too much money is not the cause of professional teachers making too little money. Hundreds of thousands of people are willing to pay $25 - $1000 for a ticket to a basketball game to see those professional basketball players play, which earns them their 100xTeacher salary. Even more people want to pay less taxes which go to the pay of professional (public) school teachers. But wouldn't it also be a shame if professional basketball players were being paid $30,000 and the left over billions of dollars were split between the 30 owners of those teams? I'm willing to bet that the rich basketball players give back more dollars to their communities than the even richer basketball team owners do (or even would if they held back that extra money from the players). People not getting paid for doing something that other people pay for them to do is a shame. Right now, people are not willing to pay for professional (public) teachers to teach. (Some people are able, and do, pay for professional private school teachers to teach.... if they aren't getting paid enough then they are in the same position that an NBA player would be in if their team owners were keeping all the money for themselves.)
- gaius 16y ago
  Teachers have freely chosen their economic situation. The price of a job for life is that a good teacher's salary will be averaged with their colleagues who are utterly incompetent (who went into teaching knowing full well that once they got their foot in the door they would be untouchable). If teachers want to improve their lot, they'll disband their unions. A pro athlete can lose his place on the team in a heartbeat...
  - hdctambien 16y ago
    When a specific pro athlete loses his place on a team, he is replaced by another pro athlete that will absorb the money. While not being able to easily remove (or identify) bad teachers is a problem, the solution to that issue will not increase the pool of money available to pay the remaining good teachers (unless the solution involves removing but not replacing the bad teachers) A teacher's salary is less "an average of the salary of their colleagues" as it is a division of the money allocated to education from taxes (and fundraisers).

by jeromec 16y ago

hdctambien 16y ago

Professional athletes making too much money is not the cause of professional teachers making too little money. Hundreds of thousands of people are willing to pay $25 - $1000 for a ticket to a basketball game to see those professional basketball players play, which earns them their 100xTeacher salary. Even more people want to pay less taxes which go to the pay of professional (public) school teachers. But wouldn't it also be a shame if professional basketball players were being paid $30,000 and the left over billions of dollars were split between the 30 owners of those teams? I'm willing to bet that the rich basketball players give back more dollars to their communities than the even richer basketball team owners do (or even would if they held back that extra money from the players). People not getting paid for doing something that other people pay for them to do is a shame. Right now, people are not willing to pay for professional (public) teachers to teach. (Some people are able, and do, pay for professional private school teachers to teach.... if they aren't getting paid enough then they are in the same position that an NBA player would be in if their team owners were keeping all the money for themselves.)

gaius 16y ago
Teachers have freely chosen their economic situation. The price of a job for life is that a good teacher's salary will be averaged with their colleagues who are utterly incompetent (who went into teaching knowing full well that once they got their foot in the door they would be untouchable). If teachers want to improve their lot, they'll disband their unions. A pro athlete can lose his place on the team in a heartbeat...
- hdctambien 16y ago
  When a specific pro athlete loses his place on a team, he is replaced by another pro athlete that will absorb the money. While not being able to easily remove (or identify) bad teachers is a problem, the solution to that issue will not increase the pool of money available to pay the remaining good teachers (unless the solution involves removing but not replacing the bad teachers) A teacher's salary is less "an average of the salary of their colleagues" as it is a division of the money allocated to education from taxes (and fundraisers).