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Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 12:13:39 -0400
Reply-to: phys-l@mailer.uwf.edu
From: herbgottlieb@juno.com (Herbert H. Gottlieb)
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu
Cc: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu
Subject: Re: Sabbatical replacement and Dollars
I feel that university professors should be getting
paid much more that the high school teachers that they
often have to teach. Am I wrong??? Herb Gottlieb
Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca> wrote:
. If market forces determine the value of the service I
perform, then my service is less valuable than that of a
school teacher. .......... The bottom line is this: if
you are paid too little
you should pull up stakes and go elsewhere (or do
otherwise)
so that you can make more money.
Leigh
When I was in college studying economics, I was taught
that market forces consist of two factors, supply and
demand. But market forces consist of several additional
factors that must also be taken into account. Two of the
most important are government labor laws and union
activity.
Laws and regulations by the government set salary scales
for civil service jobs and minimum wages for private
industry. Over the years, minimum wages have constantly
been increased regardless of supply and demand.
Unions and labor organizations have been instrumental in
raising the salaries of garbage collectors, transportation
workers, truck drivers, and high school teachers
regardless of supply and demand.
Meanwhile the highly skilled tool and die makers of the
country refused to organize because they considered
themselves "professionals" and like college professors,
loved their work and felt that it was beneath them to
organize into labor unions for higher salaries and
benefits. As a result, the wages of unskilled labor soon
outdistanced those of the tool and die makers. Today,
tool and die makers are becoming scarcer and scarcer. When
new ones are needed by industry, rather than offer
increased wages to attract them, we import them from
overseas where wages are even lower than they are here.
Will the same thing happen to the jobs of college physics
professors in the USA?
Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where salaries of physics teachers are subject to
"updated" market forces)
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