the cost of living is largely dependent where you live
No one is questioning that.?ÿ There were folks from other parts of the country that read my story of the 1990s pay rates and shook their heads thinking how on earth did you consider that to be decent pay.?ÿ It was for my area at the time.?ÿ However, inflation, which was the key part of the discussion, hits the lower cost areas as well as the high cost areas and the posted stats were national averages.?ÿ I'm in one of the lower costs areas of the U.S. and still see $15/hr as low.
it's simple economics, at 18 years old you shouldn't be spending $35K on a car.
I don't disagree with that idea at all.?ÿ But if you got to buy a new Camaro Berlinetta at 19, why shouldn't the kids coming up now days be able to do the same??ÿ Your original post reeks of disdain for these kids asking for a wage rate that you don't want to pay, but it is very clear that the wage they are asking for would just provide a similar standard of living to what you were able to have at the same starting point in 1984.
and has stayed afloat on her own
Perhaps some of the kids asking for $25/hr would prefer to not just stay afloat but would rather be doing reasonable well or, God forbid, actually doing well.
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About an hour away from me, a high school graduate can get a job in an air conditioned, very clean factory for $16.75/hr with great benefits.?ÿ This is not a covered in grease and dirt all day factory.?ÿ His work day is not dependent on the weather, so he'll get his 40 hour work week pretty much all the time.?ÿ He'll have advancement opportunities towards shift supervisor or other positions if desired and will get regular wage increases each year.?ÿ Having worked third shift in a factory, I know there are downsides to factory work as well.?ÿ Yet many surveyors are stuck in this idealistic vision of surveying past where we were able to afford the basics and even have enough money for a few cold beers in the evening after being out in summer heat or winter freeze with ticks, snakes, angry dogs, crackheads, and other "fun" stories.?ÿ All while operating equipment and making decisions on behalf of a professional, whose opinion will be based on how well the 18 year old kid did his job.?ÿ Yet that kid warrants less pay than his buddy makes sitting in the air conditioned factory with no more responsibility than place item a on item b and attach with a screw before it moves down the line.?ÿ No matter how many rants about 'these darn kids today expecting to get paid for their work' that I read, I'll never understand why we (the surveyors who have made it to a comfortable point in our careers) expect young surveyors coming up to 'stay afloat' instead of trying to get the entirety of the profession on a better standing.
