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Originally Posted by pig
I disagree. Many people who go into teaching, education in general and healthcare dont go in it for the money. They go in it for wanting to do something good. Its an important job and should be recognised with a decent wage
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It should be recognised with a wage that is set by market value, just like everything else. Theres nothing intrinsically good about wanting to help people.
The problem is that when you are choosing a career path, you need to take all factors into consideration. It is an unfortunate fact that some industries in the UK have been socialised, and that if you enter them you will be working in an artificial environment that largely operates outside market forces. The result of this is that its highly unlikely that your pay will reflect your ability. If the system is set up so that (for instance) all nurses get paid $20000 a year, then you know before you decide to become a nurse that you will only be making $20000 a year - there will be very few opportunity to work for someone who pays you more money, because the state generally muscles out other employers. If you do not feel that this money reflects the value of the work you will do, then you should not choose this career. The only reason the government is able to get away with paying such a low wage is because people are willing to work for such a low wage.
In practice, there do tend to be opportunities for the more talented people to move into the private sector - for instance, the best academics may choose to go to America where their work is appreciated more, or the best doctors/dentists may focus on providing private health care, and so on. And again, if all talented people done this when the opportunity arose, then the system would either have to change, or the country would be left with sub-par services. But this is where the mythology of 'social consciousness' comes into play - people are brainwashed into believing that they have a duty to help others, and this often leads to them accepting being poorly treated and paid a sum which is far less than the value of their work. And it is precisely because they do this that the current system is able to maintain itself. If they simply refused to accept the bad treatment, then things would have to change.
edit: I'm talking explicitly about pay here, but I also mean working enviorment and the way youre treated in general. Salary is probably the most important thing in the sense that your pay gives you a direct, concrete indication of how much your employer values your work, not because people should always have 'making more money' as their primary goal or anything ridiculous like that.