Re: Overtime
Many people are too afraid to walk away from their jobs. They would rather use government or unions to force their employers to pay them more than do the work required to develop a skill that an employer will pay more for.
We all want more money, and some people are in a difficult position wrt quitting if they have family and responsibilities. While we complain about the poor job market, in some regions there are skilled jobs that go unfilled. I believe that some large fraction of people who want jobs could be trained to work in these unfilled positions. Another fraction can not. The best we can do is offer the opportunity for people to work, not guarantee them a good result.
That's all a job really is; you offer your skills to an employer in exchange for a salary. If you develop a skill worth more money, you can ask for more from your current employer, or go somewhere else your skills will be rewarded. If you don't, you can hope that your service length will be worth something, but that is no guarantee.
I would phrase that differently... You may get hired because of your skills (or degree, or experience), but you get paid for creating value. For the relationship to be sustainable, every worker must create more value for their employer than they get paid, or the business will not continue.
Of course, you already know all this too. You're a smart man JR, I just enjoy expounding on the subject. Beats posting on facebook.
I'm sure I irritate some people but I am fascinated by economics, while it is what I call a soft science.... Not like chemistry and physics, where there is only one result and the mechanisms are pretty well understood. As the old joke goes if you want three opinions ask two economists. While a "soft" science and we can argue about details the, the gross influences of economic incentives is difficult to ignore. I see the current economy as the expected result of current policy and perverse incentives created that are slowing growth. If it wasn't for an unstoppable fracking energy boom (and they have tried to stop it too), we would be in far worse shape. So perhaps acting with good intentions but creating the opposite result.
I work with a number of men who retired from the Navy. One of them told me during his time as an instructor at electronics school a student deserted. They stopped paying him, and he came back to be dishonorably discharged. Turned out he was actually still living in the barracks, just getting up early and leaving the base instead of going to his assigned classes.
They weren't running a very tight ship were they? I recall when I was in the army, I wanted to live off base, but being single and lower rank, I was not allowed to. So what I did was go on leave for a few weeks and give up my bunk in the barracks (which somebody else moved into almost immediately). After I came back from leave, I just never moved back into the barracks. As long as I showed up for the morning formation on time, nobody was the wiser. My platoon sergeant (not the sharpest stick in the bunch) finally figured out what I was up to, a couple months later. By then he was too embarrassed to turn me in, because he would have to admit he didn't notice me missing from the barracks for a few months.
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JR
