"Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message news:<bepik0$7k46i$1@ID-105084.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> John W. wrote:
> > "Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:<ben9bq$6l3c4$1@ID-105084.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> >> John W. wrote:
> >>> "Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message
> >>> news:<bel1pq$6erpl$1@ID-105084.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> >>>> John W. wrote:
> >>>>> "Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message
> >>>>> news:<bei31q$5dbad$1@ID-105084.news.dfncis.de>...
> >>>>>> http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33485
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yep.
> >>>>
> >>>> Nope, but feel free to tell us how much teachers should make and
> >>>> what the
> >>>> indicators are that tell us that they are underpaid.
> >>>>
> >>> I think teachers should get paid enough to allow them to buy a home
> >>> in
> >>> the area where they teach.
> >>
> >> Now this is just outlandish. Why should this standard not apply to
> >> every
> >> other occupation?
> >>
> > It should.
> 
> Even a percursory look at an economics textbook shows this to be an idiotic
> statement. If everyone were paid at least enough for them to purchase their
> own homes (and you haven't defined purchase, but I'll assume it means
> putting down a 20% down payment and mortgaging the rest), that wage increase
> would spread through the economy and raise other wages, and thereby prices,
> accordingly. This is why raising the minimum wage never does a damn thing.
> What you are calling for is a turbo charged minimum wage.
> 
I can only think of one or two areas of the country where there aren't
homes available for pretty much everyone that wants one. It might be a
cheap, dirty, piece of crap, but it's a home. I don't care one flip
about the economics of it, so go ahead and quote all you want. But to
me it's nothing but common sense that a person working full time in a
professional field should have the ability to purchase a home within
striking distance of their place of employment.

> > Actually, teachers and police officers can get some
> > excellent mortgage rates compared to other professionals, and IIRC
> > they can get up to 50% discount on HUD homes.
> 
> That's very nice. I must point out that teachers and police officers are not
> the only occupations in the nation.
> 
Really? How odd.

> > Why? You've obviously never worked your ass off, made a decent salary,
> > and still been unable to buy even the cheapest house.
> 
> How is this obvious? Because I disagree with your economically inept
> statement? Please define "working one's ass off", "decent salary" and
> "buying a house". You have a rather curious fixation on homeownership as
> some sort of benchmark.
> 
I don't need to define anything about work to the son of a good blue
collar family, do I?

> >>
> >> What a fair living wage increase?
> >>
> > It's a wage increase that allows for the higher cost of living in a
> > certain area.
> 
> May I see some numbers about the lack of these so-called fair increases. Be
> sure to contrast them with the rate of these increases at other occupations.
> I am pretty sure that the guys flipping burgers at my local Wendy's don't
> get fair living wage increases.
> 
Nope, because I actually could care less.

> >>> Someone
> >>> making $40,000 a year in East Tennessee can live nicely (if they
> >>> have
> >>> a dual income family); but that's also the salary teachers made near
> >>> where I lived in Berkeley, barely enough to give any hope of ever
> >>> buying a house.
> >>
> >> Oh well. The last I check, become a teacher was a voluntary choice,
> >> even
> >> near where you live in Berkeley, I suspect.
> >>
> > I don't live in Berkeley any more. But even so, would you suggest that
> > no teachers live in expensive areas? I suppose that's one way to make
> > the cost of living go down.
> 
> I would suggest that no one live where they cannot afford to do so.

Please tell me how someone who lives in, say, economically depressed
Oakland move out of that area, when in order to move they have to have
quite a bit of money (I've heard it suggested that you have at least
three months living expenses in the bank before making a major move
like that). BTW, this is one reason I think you're a rich snob,
because you have no understanding whatsoever of poverty.

> 
> >> Wow. The person in you sample of one sure is busy. It's lucky for me
> >> that
> >> the friend who composes my sample of one cancels him out.
> >
> > Then I feel bad for that person's students. Or is he a gym teacher?
> 
> Why do you feel bad for his students? I didn't say a thing about what he
> does. I hope you aren't suggesting that gym teachers don't work as hard as
> other teachers.

I am in fact suggesting that gym teachers don't work as hard as other
teachers. Not all; I'm certain some are excellent and do a great deal
of planning. But the several gym teachers I've had in my life threw a
ball on the court and sat around reading the newspaper.

John W.