Should a person who works really hard doing a physical "dirty job" be paid well?

[aveojohn]

Originally Posted by standardbredgal

The cost of living , well my rent is $1000 and I live in a 3 bedroom modern home ON the beach in Australia (sand) I lived in the US and a similar home would rent for at least $3500.
Taxes lower than America.
Petrol higher, but you many people run their car on natural gas which the government pays for ( the conversion costs $3000 to run your car on natural gas and you pay $200 outta pocket, gov pays the $2800
Food pretty much the same.
electronics higher
Quality of life is way better than the states ( I Lived there for 18 years)
free health care.
My blue collar husband was struggling in the States, he is now considered upper middle class doing the same job in Australia.

All of this depends on what part of the United States you are comparing it to.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by standardbredgal

My blue collar husband was struggling in the States, he is now considered upper middle class doing the same job in Australia.

Perhaps they still value work in Australia? It used to be that way here, too.

But now, here stateside, we overeducate and then sit on our asses and collect unemployment because there aren't enough rocket scientist jobs to go around. Maybe rocket scientists aren't quite as important to society as we thought they were.

[tcrackly]

Originally Posted by burgler09

A person isn't paid by how difficult their work is, they are paid by the amount of people that are qualified to do their job.

Not true. I worked for peanuts in a crafts factory where I was employed as a free-hand artist to decorate crafts. Only a fraction of the population can perform that function. Blows your theory.