US Politics - The Conceit of Not Conceding

[Zorral]

54 minutes ago, argonak said:

Good point.  My wife is a former college professor, and if she read my post she'd probably give me a good glare for forgetting about them.

  

If my wife was still teaching in the current conditions, I would seriously have considered asking her to quit.  The way many of the schools and parents have been treating teachers is reprehensible.  Some people seem to consider them almost disposable.  And yet they entrust their children to them?  It boggles the mind.

They do the same with the medical professions and workers. See the post I put up in the Covid-19 thread!

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Looking at the wikipedia page, they also say:  

Generally, I'd say anything that requires a graduate degree qualifies as a "profession," particularly when we're describing the "professional class" vis-a-vis the "working class."

That's a particularly American thing, I think. Given this is the US politics thread that's understandable, but in a lot of countries most professions, even the ones @Chataya de Fleury first mentioned that got this ball rolling are undergraduate degrees. Law, accounting, dentistry, engineering, veterinary and medicine are all undergraduate degrees here. Rule of thumb for me is if a degree's name specifies the career it's aimed at then it's a professional degree.

For teaching here you can either get a general degree (e.g. science, arts etc) and then do a teaching diploma, or you can do a teaching degree.

[Ormond]

2 hours ago, DMC said:

Looking at the wikipedia page, they also say:  

Generally, I'd say anything that requires a graduate degree qualifies as a "profession," particularly when we're describing the "professional class" vis-a-vis the "working class."

I actually thought any occupation where one was salaried instead of paid hourly was considered "professional."

[Tywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I actually thought any occupation where one was salaried instead of paid hourly was considered "professional."

Correct, but this is more of a class conversation, i.e. working class v. professional class. 

[Tywin et al.]

19 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

Your quote said something about what if "demand doesn't materialize". That was what I was responding too.

I meant to say an increase in demand doesn't materialize. Maybe that's where the misunderstanding is then.

Quote

If the price of goods stay the same on the  output market, and his cost drop, why wouldn't he expand output?

You would expand output if you aren't meeting the limits of your potential, but if you're already basically there I see no reason why you'd expand output. There are better was to use your new found savings.

Quote

There would be losers. But those losers would be those in high income tax brackets that are most able to take advantage of the tax savings from the current system.

I guess it's all relative. If I have $5 and someone takes a $1 from me and you have $100 and someone takes $20 from you, who has lost more? We lose the same percentage, and your amount is higher, but who is better able to withstand the loss? 

[DanteGabriel]

2 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

There is a joke about the guy who hires a plumber, the plumber finishes his work, and then hands the guy the bill. The guy says, "Man, I'm a lawyer and I don't even charge that!". The plumber looks at him says, "neither did I when I was a lawyer."

Yeah, our plumber charges more per hour than my wife the midwife, who got an undergraduate degree, a nursing degree, went to midwifery school, and has to redo her certification periodically.

[Tywin et al.]

7 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Yeah, our plumber charges more per hour than my wife the midwife, who got an undergraduate degree, a nursing degree, went to midwifery school, and has to redo her certification periodically.

On the plus side, being a midwife was probably helpful in dealing with the birth of the devil's son. 

[DanteGabriel]

9 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

On the plus side, being a midwife was probably helpful in dealing with the birth of the devil's son. 

You aren't wrong. She noticed symptoms two weeks before her due date that indicated a disorder that increases the risk of a stillbirth.  We went for in for tests at midnight and Dante Jr was born less than 12 hours later. Even the senior midwife in the practice said she might not have thought of it.

[ThinkerX]

competent auto mechanics also charge a fair chunk of change - around $100 an hour, these days, depending on....things.

That said, though...

I spent years bouncing through hourly jobs that paid a bit above the minimum wage...with no benefits to speak of.  Still, a miniscule amount of each check went to Medicaid/Medicare (hard to tell from the abbreviations on the pay stubs).  For that matter, everybody who draws a regular paycheck pays into those programs. Therefor, from where I'm standing, they should have the opportunity to gain the benefits of what they're paying into - especially, as is often the case, there are no significant benefits attached to the job.  

[Tywin et al.]

16 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

You aren't wrong. She noticed symptoms two weeks before her due date that indicated a disorder that increases the risk of a stillbirth.  We went for in for tests at midnight and Dante Jr was born less than 12 hours later. Even the senior midwife in the practice said she might not have thought of it.

Jesus, well that's good to hear!

[DMC]

3 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

For teaching here you can either get a general degree (e.g. science, arts etc) and then do a teaching diploma, or you can do a teaching degree.

To be clear, you do not need a graduate degree to teach K-12 here in the States either.  I was just saying anything that did require a graduate degree should certainly qualify as "professional," not that it was absolutely necessary.  A lot of journalists, for instance, don't go to grad school, but I'd still certainly qualify that as part of the "professional" class.  Well, at least actual journalists that is, suppose that's changing.

[Zorral]

But for moving up in one's teaching profession in K-12, one is expected to get at least an MA, if one doesn't have it already.  Which costs of course nobody helps the teacher with paying.