overthere

Follow The Money

Um, no. The NCAA is created by the schools, it is effectively an employer/employee relationship and the NCAA will do what they're told to do. The giant gorilla in the background for the schools(which ARE the NCAA) is anti trust legislation. None of them want to pay one penny in salary or signing bonus to any player of any skill level for the obvious reason that it creates a landslide of expense for them in a bidding frenzy. And that means reduced profit. It's a huge business with a bizarre vacuum on the expense side of the ledger. None f them have any motivation at all to change that.

College football is immensely profitable for the schools, through large gates, merchandise and big TV contracts. They also use football to leverage fat money from alumni, another big source of cash. Those revenue streams will be challenged if they have to start paying players, which seems very likely. They'll be looking to the NFL to help out with that, somehting the NFL can easily afford since they are so successful.

You're just being pouty now, did you think the techers would get everything? Ah, I see why. It's because they always have in the past. The end result is actually that the govt kept within its fiscal means, or at least has not added materially to the $60 billion BC provincial debt. Would you admire your leader again if she only made the easy decisions?

Nobody has touched on why average prices are so much lower overall in the US. It's because so many people live in trailers there.

Not even close. Oh, and speaking of the head count, Chretien had about 200 of our plucky lads in Iraq the first time around.

and our civil service salaries are higher than US. Its all relative, the disposable income in Oz is similar to here. Mortgage rates there are a couple points higher than Canada. They have their shit together in regard to management of their professional civil service, overall.

deregulation might well solve both things- better and less profit. Really, the whole setup is a series of regional near- monopolies.

Agreed. We are several years away from the type of effective civil service reform they have achieved. Unlike Canada, they don't have jobs for life in their professional civil service. Speaking from personal experience as former employee and extensive experience as a contractor, I know it is very very difficult to get fired or laid off as a civil servant. That's just a fact. No need for either of us to pretend otherwise. Please do not waste time and/or pixels on this kind of BS. It just does not happen. No, that would not happen since the Treasury Board is composed entirely of politicans who are on 4 year contracts. Who would lose their minds would be the TB Secretariat, composed of civil servants with effective lifetime tenure. That's an excellent suggestion, let's start with them on 3 year contracts.,

Rubbish. There is minor concern about our ability to meet our NATO treaty obligations. It is tempered by the reality that Canada- with US, UK and Ddenamrk- was one of a very few supposed allies that actually did the heavy lifting in Afghanistan. They know it. We know it. And now you know it. It's a massive upgrade from the horror of the Chretien years, when that asshole would actually send our men and women in harms way into combat zones like the Balkans with seriously substandard equipment.

The rest? Look for jobs for which they have zero experience and little chance of getting, since only about 50% of NCAA black athletes graduate. It's not just young talent that plays hockey and baseball. Guys in their 30s are common in minor pro leagues, you can make a decent living for years without playing in the NFL or MLB. Not so with football. It is a reason the NFL is so financially successful: they pay little for player development.

I'm not sure that every civil service job could be contracted out, but I agree that many are cqndidates. Actually many have- cleaners and tradespeople are examples from the past. Many more in other capacities have been hired though, how would you trim it down dramatically? Here is a place to start: follow Australias lead and put everybody on a 3 year renewable contract, with renewal based on need and employee performance.

Looks like she delegated the job to the right people though. Why wouldn't that fill you with respect for the elected officials and Education staff who represented the taxpayers all the way to a negotiated settlement? No need for risky arbitration, no need to legislate them back, a negotiated settlement within fiscal guidelines. Sounds like everybody won this one.

The Drop is of the same urban noir genre as Killing Them Softly, which also coincidentally had James Gandolfini.

Your last bit contradicts all that comes earlier. I do agree with your assertion that they should get what everyone gets. What everybody else gets is market wages and benefits for similar work. I am pleased that you are willing to reduce, for example, clerical salaries in PSAC by 30% or 40%. That will save taxpayers a fortune every year.

Yeah right, like any of that ever happens. Other than the fraudulent end-of-service leave. We both know that is common.

Thanks for the admission that public service workers take fraudulent sick leave because they can.

Yeah, it's disgraceful how she allows the Minister and a bevy of well paid professionals do the bidding of an elected government.

Precisely

Yep. Depends on severity. There is a differnce between an immediate injury and a degenerative condition. Hockey players injured at the rink can often get Xrays performed right there at team expense, or at the hospital. If I show up at the hospital with a broken leg, I get treated quickly too. But pro sports teams do their own treatment after the emergency stuff, their own physio and all that. At their expense.

Note that the decision to enter the field of education is voluntary, the decision to accept a contract from an employer is voluntary and the choice to withdraw services is also voluntary. Any'hardship endured' is entirely a personal choice.

I don't want to live in a society with condescending assholes either, but apparently I have to take on some of them.

Individual speciality channels on Shaw cost a couple bucks a month, but you cannot get them unless you buy a big fat monthly package first. It is not apparent why the cost of individual channels would go up in a fully unbundled world, carriers like Shaw won't comment on this. .

If you show up at your GP with a bad knee or hip, you can wait for months or longer to get a scan and see a specilaist. Which was the topic here in the last few posts. Please don't equate that to Fords situation. Your 'dropping like flies' comment is beneath you and insulting.

Note that the cable carriers also produce the channels inhouse, like HGTV and Discovery. The product, netwrok and delivery - all from the same source. I think they make money at every level of that process. Rogers takes it a step further with sports by owning teams and venues as well as everyhting else realted to production and broadcast.. They have cleverly moved much of that product- Jays and hockey- onto 'premium channels'.