On Fri, 26 Jan 2001, Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote:
> "Kristin A. Ruhle" schreef:
>
> > >
> > > My position is that your wage should be determined in part by your
> > > contribution to society. The value you bring to the market should be the
> > > value you bring home from your market. If you are unskilled, then you are
> > > likely not producing much value, and should expect your work to be valued
> > > as such - minimum wage.
> > >
> > Skills aren't everything.
> >
> > SInce when does society need computer software more than food?
> >
> > THe most BASIC necessities of life - food, clothing, et cetera- are very
> > labor intensive to produce, and mostly unskilled. Even modern automation
> > has not eliminated the need for farm labor, sewing-factory labor, et
> > cetera. It just means that not *everyone* in society has to spend every
> > waking hour producing necessities - only a relative few. And those few get
> > very little of the benefits of "civilization." If the person who picked
> > fruit got paid as much as the software engineer, no one could afford to
> > eat! So farm and clothing-factory and other workers will always be living
> > in poverty to keep the rest of us fed and clothed while we play with our
> > toys.
>
> This brings to mind professions like those of nursing that get paid a
> lot less then they should be worth to society.
Nurses, teachers, firefighters, police -- all are getting the short end of
the stick. There are programs set up (or in the process of being set up)
to help teachers, firefighters and police with housing, providing down
payments and help with financing. While it's good that they're working on
the programs, it's a shame that these people aren't being paid enough in
the first place to make the programs unnecessary.
Julia
