Today's Ottawa Sun
There were two articles in today's Sun that I think deserve special attention. No, they have nothing to do with Katrina, or soft wood lumber disputes, no, they have to do with people taking responsibility for theirown lives and actions.
The first has to do with a term that I believe should be stricken from the English language, "comparable jobs". Apparently us Canadians, or more specifically our Government departments, are not smart enough to comprehend the whole supply and demand system on which our capitalist society runs. They still believe that if a person in a male dominated job gets paid more than someone in a female dominated job then there is something wrong that needs to be corrected. It doesn't matter that the pool of potential employees for job A (the male dominated position) is so much smaller than Job B (due to required education, training, level of risk or any number of other criteria), or possibly, as in the example in the paper, that the collective bargaining group for Job A was just historically better than their counterparts at Job B. No, the only thing that matters is that Job A is a 'man's' job while B is a 'women's' job so therefore B must be paid as much as A, end of argument. So, while every other nation in the world has already debunked the idea that it is possible, or even makes any sense, to try to equate jobs in terms of pay equity, Canadians, or more specifically in this case Ontarians, are about to have to spend an additional 5+ million dollars on our already over budget library system so that clerks who chose to work in their particular jobs, knowing full well what they would be paid, can be 'compensated' for a wrong that never existed. Socialism sucks.
The second case is at once both tragic and infuriating. A father is looking for compensation from the Government and an ATV manufacturer because he claims he was not adequately warned that he should not allow his 7 year old to drive the machine alone, and as a result his son hit a pole and later died. You are not reading that incorrectly, his 7 year old was driving the ATV alone and unsupervised. And this man has the nerve to actually state that his son's death was not his fault but rather that of the Government andATV Manufacturer.
While this is a tragic story, what would be even more tragic would be if this man receives even one penny from either party to compensate him. Sadly too many people have this mentality that if anything bad happens to them or a loved one they are owed compensation. Sometimes, as in this case, bad things just happen. In fact if anyone is at fault, it would have to be whichever parent gave a seven year old boy the keys to a 400+ pound piece of machinery. It's hard to face the fact that a decision on your part has caused someone else harm, but sometimes that's all there is to it.
The first has to do with a term that I believe should be stricken from the English language, "comparable jobs". Apparently us Canadians, or more specifically our Government departments, are not smart enough to comprehend the whole supply and demand system on which our capitalist society runs. They still believe that if a person in a male dominated job gets paid more than someone in a female dominated job then there is something wrong that needs to be corrected. It doesn't matter that the pool of potential employees for job A (the male dominated position) is so much smaller than Job B (due to required education, training, level of risk or any number of other criteria), or possibly, as in the example in the paper, that the collective bargaining group for Job A was just historically better than their counterparts at Job B. No, the only thing that matters is that Job A is a 'man's' job while B is a 'women's' job so therefore B must be paid as much as A, end of argument. So, while every other nation in the world has already debunked the idea that it is possible, or even makes any sense, to try to equate jobs in terms of pay equity, Canadians, or more specifically in this case Ontarians, are about to have to spend an additional 5+ million dollars on our already over budget library system so that clerks who chose to work in their particular jobs, knowing full well what they would be paid, can be 'compensated' for a wrong that never existed. Socialism sucks.
The second case is at once both tragic and infuriating. A father is looking for compensation from the Government and an ATV manufacturer because he claims he was not adequately warned that he should not allow his 7 year old to drive the machine alone, and as a result his son hit a pole and later died. You are not reading that incorrectly, his 7 year old was driving the ATV alone and unsupervised. And this man has the nerve to actually state that his son's death was not his fault but rather that of the Government andATV Manufacturer.
While this is a tragic story, what would be even more tragic would be if this man receives even one penny from either party to compensate him. Sadly too many people have this mentality that if anything bad happens to them or a loved one they are owed compensation. Sometimes, as in this case, bad things just happen. In fact if anyone is at fault, it would have to be whichever parent gave a seven year old boy the keys to a 400+ pound piece of machinery. It's hard to face the fact that a decision on your part has caused someone else harm, but sometimes that's all there is to it.
posted by Bic at 2:15 p.m.
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