A friend put this chart and an article on Facebook that has a lot
to say about our sense of value of people. That does not mean that we value
people solely by the economic wealth or earning power; but for most folk it is
a very strong indicator of it. That is why the article about the highest paid
state employee in the state rather than the most
valuable employee in your state.
The piece comes from “deadspin” a new website for me, but they did
the work of examining media reports and state salary databases. I don’t know
why this information surprised me it shouldn’t of. In the vast majority of
states the coach in the leading
university is the highest paid employee. Now there are a couple of college
presidents and that makes sense to me, and there are some med school deans,
which makes some sense. And then there is Nevada with a medical school for
plastic surgeons; given Nevada as the superficial capitol of shallowness, that
seems appropriate. Bear in mind the figures included extra goodies involved.
The red-neck comes out of us when we complain about state employee
salaries, mainly teachers. Teachers are those who train the young minds of the
nation to be educated citizens, talented workers, folk responsible for the future
of the country. Certainly they are of extremely high social value to our
country, and yet those folk who benefit from their skills are quick to condemn
them as overpaid slackers. And woe be to unionized teachers, which is seen as
blasphemy. People of high calling should just do it for the love of it. (We
preachers understand that mentality well.) And so we cheer our governor who
works hard for denseness of mind for breaking the teacher’s/public employee
unions in the name of created money to create jobs in the state. That went well
didn’t it? He promised a quarter of a million jobs and we got 35,000, but that
doesn’t stop his rhetoric.
Nevertheless, we are passive sport enthusiasts in this country who
love to root for our college teams and don’t blink an eye of their coaches
outrageous salaries. So be it. But I have a few ideas. The coaches don’t play
the games, and while we coddle our football and basketball players (the two
leading categories), we don’t pay them. Why not? Why not just pay them the way
we do other working students and pay them well. After all, they serve as the
minor leagues for these sports. Seems fair to me.
But wait you may say, the sports make money for the university, as
though that justifies these shocking salaries. But according to the article
that isn’t true either (fooled me). They looked at the data from 2011-2012 and
found the 99 major schools lost an average of $5 million after you take out
revenue from student fees. Then there is the money donated to athletic
scholarships, which might have gone to the college anyway; take that away and
you have an average $17, million loss.
If you want to look at some intriguing data for coach salaries I
suggest this site. You also might want to check this article
from Forbes
As an interesting social exercise what state employees to think are
of most value to your state? Make a list and check it twice and see who is
naughty and who is nice. Remember, legislators are state employees. It is
fairly easy to find a list of state employee salaries for your state on the
Internet.
Most of these dudes make more money that the President of the
United States. Go figure.
"The red-neck comes out of us when we complain about state employee salaries, mainly teachers."
ReplyDeleteNot at all. There is nothing "redneck" at all about being concerned about money that is forcibly taken from all, rich and poor, to give to state employees, and quite often in great excess without regard to the value of their work.
"And woe be to unionized teachers, which is seen as blasphemy"
Woe to them indeed, they are greedy and unprofessional, and hold the quality of education hostage to their avarice. Every gain for the teachers' union is a loss for the quality of education.
"and yet those folk who benefit from their skills are quick to condemn them as overpaid slackers."
Who benefits from the atrocious job teachers being paid $100K or more in places like Detroit do? No one. But society suffers greatly when they are rewarded great sums for doing a really terrible job.
I think you confuse teachers with CEOs. Do you know any teachers? You know those who in disasters lay the bodies down to protect their students, educate, and acts "in loco parentis" on behalf of families in the nation. Sure there are some less than great teachers who slide by but there are many many more who do very well for our students and for the future.
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