Comments for Is Paying a Bus Driver $38,000 a Year Generous? at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 12 out of 12 comments http://www.cepr.net Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:55:39 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9094 It has been ironic to watch as lower wage people get sucked into arguing amongst themselves over the few crumbs that "trickle-down" economics has yielded to them, they stupidly engage in warring against one another, as the "other half" hide behind their gated communities and laugh at us all. What fools we are! - jerry Sun, 22 May 2011 02:03:02 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9085 [b]Jay[/b] wrote, [quote]I am sure they can afford those $500,000 plus houses next to contractors and senior government officials in Montgomery Co.[/quote] That's the real scandal. I live in MontCo, and it's clear from driving around and reading the [i]Post[/i] (they did an excellent series on this a few years ago) that the real scandal is the land development policy, which aims to keep residential density low. It's a real windfall for people who already own land, and screws everyone else. - liberal Fri, 20 May 2011 14:27:58 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9083 I am sure they can afford those $500,000 plus houses next to contractors and senior government officials in Montgomery Co. Those bus drivers and their golden parachutes. - Jay Fri, 20 May 2011 13:00:14 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9081 ...bus drivers were used as the low-end example in this single sentence: "County salaries vary widely, from $38,000 a year for a bus driver to $172,000 for a child psychiatrist..." This article isn't about bus drivers, it's about a fiscal crisis in a county that has had its property tax base decimated by the recession. The title of this blog post would have been just as accurate as "Is Paying a Child Psychiatrist $172,000 a Year Generous?" - Nate Fri, 20 May 2011 10:02:57 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9075 I wonder how many Journamalists have DUIs and can't get the ticket to drive a bus? - dilbert dogbert Fri, 20 May 2011 05:37:01 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9073 $38K today is the equivalent of $16,300 back in 1982, when I started working for a living. And coincidentally that's about what the interchangeable bevy of assistants in the ad sales department were making. Or, as the WSJ reported at the time, flight attendants for regional airlines. Most of both groups still lived with their parents, and none would have even considered supporting a family on that money without another wage-earner or public assistance. - paul Fri, 20 May 2011 04:11:15 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9070 "People who make real money just snicker at this kind of conflict among the grunts." It wasn't till I read this that I realized "just snicker at" and "foment" mean the same thing. - kharris Fri, 20 May 2011 03:23:03 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9069 David and wally hit the nail on the head- the feigned chagrin in reporting (less than!) middle class wages attempts to stoke lower middle class envy- there are so much more lower class than upper class citizens- the double standard for reporting rich salaries is to feign fatalism- we are "forced" to keep wages in line for the masses, while there's nothing we (Geithner et al) can do about about skyrocketing personal profiteering of the finacial elites - frankenduf Fri, 20 May 2011 03:08:22 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9066 What this is about is crabs-in-a-barrel. People who make real money just snicker at this kind of conflict among the grunts. - wally Fri, 20 May 2011 02:49:41 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9065 The reason reporters buy into the "too generous" meme is that $38,000 is probably close to a WP journalist's starting salary. And they can remember getting paid much less than that right out of J-school. It's all about wage envy. - David Fri, 20 May 2011 02:42:41 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9062 Why don't the newspapers ever complain about the overpayment of editor and reporters in the failing newspaper business? Funny how it is never the employe fault that the papers are going broke. - Paul Benjamin Fri, 20 May 2011 01:43:53 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-it-paying-a-bus-driver-38000-a-year-generous#comment-9059 Paying bus drivers $38,000/year is very generous, as that's a lot of money. We can't raise marginal tax rates on income above $250,000 because people struggle to get by on that amount. By the way, the recession has nothing to do with state and local finances. Barely deserves a mention. Is that clear now? - foosion Fri, 20 May 2011 00:56:43 +0100