Monday, November 14, 2011

Something you will hear at OWS

Posted by dkuehn at 8:10 AM
"The incomes of well-to-do people have been cut by 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 per cent. The school-teachers are cut 15 per cent, in addition to the extra taxes which they have to pay. It is a monstrous thing to single out this class and discriminate against them, merely because they happen to be employees of the Government. It is particularly outrageous, because efforts have been made in recent years to attract into the profession teachers of higher qualifications by holding out to them certain expectations. It is even proposed to take powers to dissolve existing contracts. That the school-teachers should have been singled out for sacrifice as an offering to the Moloch of finance is a sufficient proof of the state of hysteria and irresponsibility into which Cabinet Ministers have worked themselves."

- John Maynard Keynes, 1931

6 comments:

  1. Gary GunnelsNovember 14, 2011 at 9:25 AM

    If you are interested in some fundamental changes in American education I would guess that the loss of positions by public school teachers wouldn't trouble you much much. Anyway, in the U.S. the teacherpocalypse has been overhyped.

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  2. Daniel KuehnNovember 14, 2011 at 9:29 AM

    Since you overhype the mere mention of things you don't care about, I'm not sure I'm going to rely on your evaluation of that point.

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  3. Prateek SanjayNovember 14, 2011 at 9:32 AM

    Not all change is progress, Gary.

    It was Bastiat who pointed out that cutting salaries of public sector workers may actually work out to be a greater loss on the treasury, because of the addition to inefficiencies due to less competent workers being hired.

    Ironically, it is the most consistent libertarians of the Mises.Org forums and of the Auburn streak who advocate higher public sector pay. Walter Block said that if government is a problem because it takes money away from people's hands, then the more money you take away from government, the better.

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  4. Gary GunnelsNovember 14, 2011 at 9:56 AM

    Daniel: Well, this is what I have to bring to the table (it isn't a scientific survey admittedly): http://www.nctq.org/p/tqb/viewStory.jsp?id=29017 If you have something better which shows something different then please feel free to share it.

    Prateek,

    The U.S. at the federal and state level has poured lots and lots of increasing resources into public schools since the mid-1960s and the result has been (based on what the government itself uses to measure such things) a whole lot of no change in student performance. There are some rather intransigent problems with American education and they aren't the result of lack of funding either on personnel or on facilities.

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  5. AnonymousNovember 14, 2011 at 10:11 AM

    Something you'll see quoted when Kuehn tries to save himself from unemployment.

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  6. Gary GunnelsNovember 14, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    Prateek Sanjay,

    Of course we've had some good alternatives to public education for some time now: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/magazine/my-parents-were-home-schooling-anarchists.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1

    ReplyDelete

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