CPCFTW

All the revered arts and cultures of the world originated from global superpowers, and yes, most of the world currently only cares about American (current superpower) and European culture (previous superpowers). I'm sorry, I don't have a citation for my opinion that people in China are more interested in Transformers and Inception than Little Mosque on the Prairie and Men with Brooms.

It's called an opinion. My opinion is that very few in the world care about taxpayer funded arts like little mosque on the prairie or heartland. You may have your own opinion. It's ok, I know that when you lefties are taking a break from smelling your own farts, you love to point out that any opinion that differs from yours is stupid and uneducated.

No one other than hippies cares about the arts and culture of a country unless they are a global superpower. Try reading the complete sentence.

Good post. All the money being spent on "culture" and "the arts" is a waste. No one other than hippies cares about the arts and culture of a country unless they are a global superpower. The paradox is that if Canada wants to be a source of culture and arts, it has to stop funding that crap and start funding the generation of wealth. Maybe after 50 years of unmitigated growth, the world will start to care about our culture. Culture and arts should be a by-product of a successful society, not a burden on it.

It makes me so happy to think of a possible 12 years of conservative majority and 17 years of Harper rule. All hail king Harper!

Of course it's worth that cost to secure a majority government so that the conservative government can finally start doing what it has been mandated to do by the Canadian people (cut costs and spending). For the greater good and all that jazz. The entitled libs and NDP no longer have the power to hold the government hostage by threatening to topple the government without increased spending. If spending continues to rise while the cons have a majority government, then they will be in trouble because the Canadian people finally gave them the mandate and the power to do what 40% of Canadians know needs to be done.

It's called a table not a chart.

A few things: 1. I never advocated any specific figure for the salary of teachers. 2. > means "greater than" 3. Once again, that is 35% of HOUSEHOLDS in Toronto earn less than $50,000. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll catch on eventually. I know differentiating between an individual and a household is a tough concept to grasp. I never claimed it was income earners. You're a master of the strawman argument, do you teach your students that?

True. I'm just grateful that the 500k I invested in my education paid off too. Opportunity cost of not being able to work full time during kindergarten, elementary, high school, undergrad, and masters, troll. I'm still trying to bill my mom for the opportunity cost of locking me up in her womb for 9 months.

17.6% 3 persons, 26.5% 4-5 persons, 4.6% 6 or more persons. Sum = 48.7%. What a rounding liar I am! You're a joke. Thank you.

You must have been doing body shots off of college girls every friday night if you paid 100k for your education experience. You could have gotten a law degree for that.

I cited median household income. I'm done with you. Grow a brain. http://www.trra.ca/en/reports/TORegionGenDemo.asp

Are you stupid? Do you know what a household is? Household income is the sum of ALL people in the household. Did I ever even mention the median income of teachers? No. I gave two salary figures drawn from a salary grid that ranges from 45,700 to 94,700 depending on education and experience. So how do you know that the median income of a SINGLE INDIVIDUAL TEACHER is less than the combined income of the median HOUSEHOLD OF 3-4 PEOPLE? It probably is less, but that was never my point. In fact, you're the one who inexplicably brought up household income. However, a SINGLE INDIVIDUAL teacher makes on average slightly less than the median HOUSEHOLD OF 3-4 PEOPLE. I can't believe I had to explain that to you 3 times and you're teaching our children...

Wtf are you talking about? I provided a link to the Collective Agreement and provided the page reference. No they should not "move up the salary grid" plus get a 3% annual increase for inflation during a period when inflation only increased by 4.5% (3%/annum = 9.3% over the same period). The private sector was freezing wages and laying people off while teachers get to exercise their god given right to move up the salary grid?

I already said that almost every public servant is overpaid. Don't know why you keep bringing up other public servants. You're all overpaid. Yes the average household income is 100k, but the median is 76k. Also 50% of households have over 3 individuals. I don't expect you to interpret those statistics rationally, so I'll do it for you: The average is distorted by 20% of Toronto having household incomes over 100k (ie. the 19% of households with two teachers or litter pickers or bus drivers, and 1% of households with the lawyers, bankers, and executives). A ttc fare collector with a wife working as a retail sales associate and a son flipping burgers at mcdonalds part time has a household income of 100k. Doesn't mean the ttc fare collector isn't overpaid.

Who knows? Probably quite a few, I'd say at least 20-30% don't even get into their field in the first place. I doubt that every history, philosophy, or social sciences graduate finds a "job" in those "fields". Lots of private companies like to hire business and engineering grads in fields unrelated to their degrees.

What's my point? The 7.3% REAL per annum raise during the worst recession since the great depression is my point. Do I really have to clarify anything about that for you? And you are who we are paying to teach our children?

50% in 10 years? Is that supposed to be bad? How many jobs are there out there that recent university grads will stay in for over 10 years? I actually can't think of any other than cushy federal government jobs. Most university grads have ambition and aren't ready to settle down as a career high school teacher. Doesn't mean it's a hard job. You must be reading propaganda pamphlets from your union rep if you think that's significant.

Toronto teachers get pre-negotiated raises plus inflationary increases during a recession. See charts on page 25. http://www.osstfd12.com/adx/aspx/adxGetMedia.aspx?DocID=115,19,9,5,Documents&MediaID=136&Filename=CollAgr0812.pdf Let's say you started in September 08 with a bachelor degree of arts and a 2 yr teaching degree (group 4), you would have started at a salary of $50,702, and by Sept 2011 you would be making $65,573, a 30% raise while thousands in the private sector got laid off or had their pay frozen. The annual inflation rates from 2008 to 2010 were 2.37%, 0.30%, and 1.78% respectively, for a combined inflation of 4.5% over the period (I'm assuming the inflation from sept 08 to jan 09 + jan 11 to sep 11 will be roughly equal to the inflation rate of 2008 given current inflation trends, so I am using it as a proxy for this value). A 4.5% inflation adjustment would equate to a salary of around $53000. Therefore, Toronto teachers got a real raise of 7.3% per year during the worst recession since the great depression ($53,000 x 1.073^3 = 65,500). They're so oppressed!!! I didn't even bother reading the rest of their ridiculous benefits.

Spin it however you want, teachers get paid more than the average Canadian salary for a job that most high school graduates could do, and they get 3 months of vacation. Year round schooling would be a great dea but the teacher's unions would never go for it without a 30% hike in teacher's salaries. Too bad because that would seriously help the quality of Canadian education. And are you suggesting that teachers may also be able to claim EI for these periods of "unemployment"? If that's the case, I might as well retire from my career now and get into teaching.

Are you serious? Examples please? Try reading the thread.

I said freeze the wages of ALL public servants. I wouldn't say the prime minister is overpaid but 99% of public servants are and it would be more fair to "oppress" the 1% of public servants who earn their wages than it is to oppress the rest of Canadians so that 99% of public servants can be paid an arbitrary "living wage" they haven't earned.

I find it funny to hear people complaining about executive compensation in the private sector. If you're an executive in the private sector you're working 8am-8pm 6 days a week to make what you do (after earning multiple degrees and busting your ass to get up to that level). If you're an executive public servant you're making 100k+ working 930-430 5 days a week with a bachelor degree and you get a guaranteed pension for life.

I wonder if the 7.5% of the labour force who are unemployed would pick up litter for 40k/yr (assuming no ei). What's so special about the ttc litter pickers. Why do these chosen ones get to rise above others in the lower classes? Do they possess elite litter picking skills?

What about the private sector which does not have guaranteed wage increases and so has to subsidize the ever inflating wages of the public servants to their own detriment? The private sector values the labour of these people as providing an economic profit, but their wages are depressed because private enterprise has to pay high taxes to pay 40k to litter pickers and 60k to bus drivers and token collectors. Lettig unions dictate the value of public service workers is an abomination and destroys value in our society. I don't mind paying police and teachers decent salaries, (although teachers already get ridiculous vacation benefits) because it can be argued for their economic benefit to society, but there are too many useless jobs with no economic benefit or a miniscule economic value relative to their wages.