Sasha Pachev wrote:
Ok, a somewhat off-topic post. A subject that has been on my mind lately.[snip]
A programmer make somewhere in that range annually.
An EMT, a policeman, a firefighter, a teacher, and a farmer make about half the amount annually.
It appears that the law that the amount of pay is inversely proportionate to the usefulness of the labor you perform holds very well in those examples. So something is definitely wrong with our economy, but is more than recession, lack of jobs, or high fuel prices. Something is REALLY wrong. Being skillful in drawing public attention is worth millions, while actually making things happen is worth close to survival minimum. With two languages mixed in my head, I cannot remember if this carries into English, but in Russian they say that an empty barrel makes a lot of noise :-)
So what is the solution? Any thoughts?
I noticed that some of those jobs mentioned are not subject to all the normal economic forces Or perhaps they are, but then are subject to additional forces as well. Jobs like policeman, firefighter, and teacher (don't know about EMT) are typically government jobs and derive their salaries from direct taxation and law/politics as well as (more than?) by the typical market forces that, say, a programmer's salary would be regulated by.
I have worked on occasion with government IT people and they often joke about how they will someday go into the private sector "where all the money is". This seems to me to especially be the case with military IT people, particularly the Security ones.
It might be interesting to look at government regulated monopolies as well, such as water, sewer, garbage, and electricity. Pre/post deregulation phone industry might be another interesting source of data points for comparison.
This is just an observation, not a commentary.
Adam Augustine
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