Around 1800 in England and Russia, the three main do-gooder activities were medicine, school, and alms (= food/shelter for the weak, such as the old or crippled). Today the three spending categories of medicine, school, and alms make up ~40% of US GDP, a far larger fraction than in 1800. …
I was thinking the same. Perhaps in times past (and in some countries, to this day) it was organized religion.
But in modern secular democracies it is - without a doubt - politicians (Food stamps, social security, medicare, medicaid). And they are very well organized, extremely pampered and they tend to win most fights with other groups.
That is a gross underestimate of how much time teachers actually spend working. Teachers have to spend a significant amount of time outside of school on grading. While this is not a rigorous survey, the total working hours I have generally heard from teachers I know is 50 hours / week (10 hours / day) when school is in session, for a total of 180 * 10 = 1800 hours per year. Add in-service days (days when teachers come to school for meetings, etc. but students don't come in) and a couple weeks of meetings and preparation at the start of the year, and the total is probably ~1900.According to BLS statistics, the average teacher earns $55.7k / yr (the data is at http://www.bls.gov/oes/curr... I took a weighted average of all non-special ed kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers), for an average of $29.31, very close to the college-educated median that you cite.
A lot of the revolutions of the early modern years were about States displacing or weakening the Church. See: Confiscations of church lands in the French Revolution or the earlier creation of the Church of England.
Teacher compensation is very back-loaded. You don't make as much when you start out, but you get higher pay for seniority & credentials (neither of which have been found to actually help kids learn). If the system was reformed to continually get rid of the bottom performing teachers while bringing in new ones at a higher starting pay, there would be higher quality teachers.
Far more than the median college educated wage of $30/hour. This is despite the fact that education majors consistently rank at or near the bottom of standardized test scores.
Why do you suppose education attracts only the bottom if the pay is so great? (It points to compensation going to teachers being the result of the undesirability of the work itself--very stressful, apparently.)
Teaching and diagnosing/treating illnesses are both specialized skills; not just anybody can walk in and be a competent teacher or doctor. What is the equivalent skill for alms? Surely not the actual production of food or construction of shelter, since that's not specific to poor people.
The typical teacher works about 1250 hours a year (180 days of school times 7 hours of class/prep a day). Median teacher salary is about of $50,000 a year.
In addition the vast majority of public school teachers receive defined benefit retirement plans after only 30 years of work. If a teacher starts at 25 they can retire at 55 and receive a significant portion of their salary as pension for the rest of their life. They also receive free healthcare both when they work and after they retire.
Life expectancy is about 85, interest rates are near zero and healthcare costs are growing much faster than GDP, so you can see that NPV of these retirement plans are huge. Needless to say virtually 100% of private sector workers have MUCH less generous benefit packages.
When you add up the value of healthcare, pensions and other benefits the median value of non-salary compensation can easily exceed $20,000 a year in many districts.
Median teachers earn a wage of $56/hour. Far more than the median college educated wage of $30/hour. This is despite the fact that education majors consistently rank at or near the bottom of standardized test scores.
I should have added that the "alms experts" among non-profits are organized in terms of their organizations, some of which are already huge: e.g., the Red Cross, the United Way, etc. How/why would further organization or the issuance of professional titles help?
Hmm, the profession exists and is politically powerful, but the pay is middling. I mean the welfare lobby, including it's various charities, think-tanks and whatever. And notice that while it is politically powerful, it's power is not overwhelming. Welfare reform, and kicking people off the dole can be a vote winner.
If RH is right that people have an inherent emotional reaction in favour of "feeders", then I think there are other counterbalancing reactions. In fact I see no reason why both sides of gather-and-redistribute politics wouldn't have existed in forager tribes.
I was thinking the same. Perhaps in times past (and in some countries, to this day) it was organized religion.
But in modern secular democracies it is - without a doubt - politicians (Food stamps, social security, medicare, medicaid). And they are very well organized, extremely pampered and they tend to win most fights with other groups.
That is a gross underestimate of how much time teachers actually spend working. Teachers have to spend a significant amount of time outside of school on grading. While this is not a rigorous survey, the total working hours I have generally heard from teachers I know is 50 hours / week (10 hours / day) when school is in session, for a total of 180 * 10 = 1800 hours per year. Add in-service days (days when teachers come to school for meetings, etc. but students don't come in) and a couple weeks of meetings and preparation at the start of the year, and the total is probably ~1900.According to BLS statistics, the average teacher earns $55.7k / yr (the data is at http://www.bls.gov/oes/curr... I took a weighted average of all non-special ed kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers), for an average of $29.31, very close to the college-educated median that you cite.
First thought in my mind as well. Down the street from me at night these guys do exactly that: http://www.thenightministry...
A lot of the revolutions of the early modern years were about States displacing or weakening the Church. See: Confiscations of church lands in the French Revolution or the earlier creation of the Church of England.
"Even so, there does seem to be an as yet largely unused opening for a feeding profession."
You are incorrect its used. Feeders are very heavily subsidized.
I was thinking political parties and their associated bureaucracies.
Teacher compensation is very back-loaded. You don't make as much when you start out, but you get higher pay for seniority & credentials (neither of which have been found to actually help kids learn). If the system was reformed to continually get rid of the bottom performing teachers while bringing in new ones at a higher starting pay, there would be higher quality teachers.
Far more than the median college educated wage of $30/hour. This is despite the fact that education majors consistently rank at or near the bottom of standardized test scores.
Why do you suppose education attracts only the bottom if the pay is so great? (It points to compensation going to teachers being the result of the undesirability of the work itself--very stressful, apparently.)
encompassing profession of “feeders”
Do farmers partly play off of this to get aid. They say things like "We feed you".
Teaching and diagnosing/treating illnesses are both specialized skills; not just anybody can walk in and be a competent teacher or doctor. What is the equivalent skill for alms? Surely not the actual production of food or construction of shelter, since that's not specific to poor people.
Indeed. I'm sort of amazed Robin missed that.
The typical teacher works about 1250 hours a year (180 days of school times 7 hours of class/prep a day). Median teacher salary is about of $50,000 a year.
In addition the vast majority of public school teachers receive defined benefit retirement plans after only 30 years of work. If a teacher starts at 25 they can retire at 55 and receive a significant portion of their salary as pension for the rest of their life. They also receive free healthcare both when they work and after they retire.
Life expectancy is about 85, interest rates are near zero and healthcare costs are growing much faster than GDP, so you can see that NPV of these retirement plans are huge. Needless to say virtually 100% of private sector workers have MUCH less generous benefit packages.
When you add up the value of healthcare, pensions and other benefits the median value of non-salary compensation can easily exceed $20,000 a year in many districts.
Median teachers earn a wage of $56/hour. Far more than the median college educated wage of $30/hour. This is despite the fact that education majors consistently rank at or near the bottom of standardized test scores.
It's the protestant work ethic. I can save money/investments, so anyone who is poor muuuuuust be lazy.
Surely the traditional alms professional is organized religion.
I should have added that the "alms experts" among non-profits are organized in terms of their organizations, some of which are already huge: e.g., the Red Cross, the United Way, etc. How/why would further organization or the issuance of professional titles help?
Hmm, the profession exists and is politically powerful, but the pay is middling. I mean the welfare lobby, including it's various charities, think-tanks and whatever. And notice that while it is politically powerful, it's power is not overwhelming. Welfare reform, and kicking people off the dole can be a vote winner.
If RH is right that people have an inherent emotional reaction in favour of "feeders", then I think there are other counterbalancing reactions. In fact I see no reason why both sides of gather-and-redistribute politics wouldn't have existed in forager tribes.