Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I bet you didn’t know the kindly old lady who taught you piano when you were 9 was actually part of a nefarious price-fixing scam that threatened the economic well-being of consumers everywhere. But don’t worry. The federal government is on the case, as Kim Strassel reports in Potomac Watch column for the Wall Street Journal:
In March of this year, a small nonprofit in Cincinnati—the Music Teachers National Association—received a letter from the FTC. The agency was investigating whether the association was engaged in, uh, anticompetitive practices.
This was bizarre, given that the MTNA has existed since 1876 solely to advance the cause of music study and support music teachers. The 501(c)(3) has about 22,000 members, nearly 90% of them piano teachers, including many women who earn a modest living giving lessons in their homes. The group promotes music study and competitions and helps train teachers. Not exactly U.S. Steel.
The association’s sin, according to the feds, rested in its code of ethics. The code lays out ideals for members to follow—a commitment to students, colleagues, society. Tucked into this worthy document was a provision calling on teachers to respect their colleagues’ studios, and not actively recruit students from other teachers.
That’s a common enough provision among professional organizations (doctors, lawyers), yet the FTC avers that the suggestion that Miss Sally not poach students from Miss Lucy was an attempt to raise prices for piano lessons. Given that the average lesson runs around $30 an hour, and that some devoted teachers still give lessons for $5 a pop, this is patently absurd.
Rest at link.
Your tax dollars at work....assuming you're in the minority that has to pay any.
Aren't there a few bankers, CEOs, or stockbrokers that need their attention more?
Piano teachers are all that they are allowed to go after in times of systemic fraud crisis, where the fraud is the only possible method of dealing with the massive fraud.
Going after piano teachers is the only activity left to them of looking away, and standing down - to save the Republic.
Fraud away, fraud away, fraud away, Dixieland.
After piano teachers, I don't know, maybe dog groomers.
Meh. Another tempest in a teapot.
I did a little music teaching for a brief period, and it's a tough way to make a living.
No matter what the membership of the MTNA agreed upon when they joined, private music teachers always poach from other teachers. Even when a teacher does not, they are going to be accused of poaching.
Keeping the schedule full is everything in the business.
I'm very sure it took the FTC about 5 minutes max to figure that one out. Music teaching is free capitalism at it's most savage. Those little old ladies are nothing but snarling grey panthers when it comes to the business end of the occupation.
Meh. Another tempest in a teapot.
I did a little music teaching for a brief period, and it's a tough way to make a living.
No matter what the membership of the MTNA agreed upon when they joined, private music teachers always poach from other teachers. Even when a teacher does not, they are going to be accused of poaching.
Keeping the schedule full is everything in the business.
I'm very sure it took the FTC about 5 minutes max to figure that one out. Music teaching is free capitalism at it's most savage. Those little old ladies are nothing but snarling grey panthers when it comes to the business end of the occupation.
Same for guitar lessons.
My son wanted them and then decided he really didn't like it all that much.
Got hounded by the guitar teacher and kept telling him that my son didn't want to learn anymore.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
