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Comment by matthewfelgate | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this a bit ridiculous pay for a delivery driver?!

The average Public School Teacher salary in the United States is $56,937

Yes, public school teachers are grossly underpaid. They should also make $170k. They each add more value to society than the average FAANG engineer.

This is the most correct post that’s ever been on this website.

Unfortunately, the value to society is not the main factor in compensation. If the incentives were to be aligned that way, we'd live in a very different world.

The answer is to pay school teachers more, not demand everyone else be paid less.

I don't understand these people's mindsets. I've read a few comments on reddit stating that SWE should earn less because so does everyone else, instead of wanting for everyone else to earn more. Unbealivable how some people just want to pull others down out of spite.

If everyone else earns more, nobody else earns more, because of inflation

In a zero sum world this is true. However if we have technology to harness energy more cheaply and produce what we need more cheaply you will simply have abundance. But if everyone is doing BS work and fighting over a dwindling supply of good things, you have high inflation of those good things and they become unaffordable.

You’re right, I think the implication is executives and shareholders earning less to make that happen.

Supporters would probably say that this would come at the expense of investors/shareholders.

It doesn’t, it comes at the expense of other people in the delivery driving industry, who are kept out of UPS jobs by the union

You really have an ax to grind on this subject. Can you explain in more depth what you mean by that, exactly?

I don't think delivery drivers should be paid three times the salary of teachers.

Surely the solution you have in mind is to increase teacher salaries, right?

Wow, why didn't anybody think of that before?

Then the answer is to pay teachers more, not others less, right?

Whats the actual difference? If everyone gets $170k or if everyone gets $100k or if everyone gets $50k? They will all get the same amount...

Shlepping shit is hard work. Especially in this heat. And you are on clock and monitored.

If you think the pay is amazing, go apply. UPS is always hiring.

Also, be aware that you will quickly discover the difference between mean and median when you are one of the bottom rung workers.

Other jobs are hard work too.

You’re comparing apples to oranges. Delivery drivers create direct economic benefit to a corporation and should (imo) receive compensation that is aligned and proportional to that benefit.

Public school teachers are government employees. While I think their job, from a societal perspective, is more important than a delivery driver’s, it’s impossible to make the argument for higher pay on the same grounds. I do agree that teachers should be paid a lot more.

Imagine the teachers strike for a year.

It's $66,745, ranging from $47k in Mississippi to $91k in New York:

https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-studen...

The US median income for individuals is $54k, so your average teacher actually makes a decent income.

Basing this off the median salary doesn’t mean it’s good. I know what median means, before you ask, but the cost of everything has grown so disproportionate to the median wage that this 54k is closer to poverty than it is a self-supporting wage near a major city.

Isn't it ridiculous that we find it ridiculous that some people get a fair wage instead of finding it ridiculous that those who don't don't? The only ridiculous bit here is that teachers, in any country, are underpaid. _That_ should be fixed.

Also we should fix demeaning people for performing various types of jobs. A job is a job and the person is valuable.

It's not a fair wage it's a ridiculous wage.

Did you want to make any kind of argument here?

I think teachers should be paid more, but it's hard to compare salaries without factoring in summers off.

You’re right more people should have summers off.

this is highly misleading & rage-baity. In India I have seen jobs mention this kind of thing as CTC (Cost to company) which is what it really is not what get reported to IRS as gross income.

(copied my comment from other thread)

Have you tried being a delivery driver?

So tired of hearing this nonsense reply. How physically taxing a job is doesn’t determine its value.

To rephrase: “The supply of workers available should not determine how a job is compensated.”

Would you like to reconfigure your statement such that it doesn’t violate the basic law of supply and demand based on your arbitrary system of valuing labor?

Sure it does. It limits the supply of people who are willing and able to perform the job, which increases the market value of those who are.

Have you tried living without delivery drivers?

Not the point, and you clearly have a loose grip on economics.

Have you tried living without water? No? Would you pay $170,000 per year for it?

Value is what people are willing to pay but that is not what should primarily determine prices, they should be primarily determined by the costs of production. That is what competition is for, driving the profits to zero and the prices towards production costs.

The value of water is very high, people would pay any price because otherwise they would die of thirst. The price on the other hand is low because the costs of production are low. The explanation why the price reflect the costs and not the value in this case, you can pick on your own, maybe competition, maybe the expectation of people with pitchforks if you try to get rich by selling water for $100 per liter, maybe regulations, ... probably a combination of several things.

/remind me 2050

I mean, if no one is willing to do a job then you have to pay more for it. That's why dangerous jobs have hazard pay. And since you can't do a physical job for a long as a white collar job, you need more money to compensate.

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