Should the government introduce price controls on necessary goods?

[OrangeEmpire]

embrace your laziness. and i'd be willing to bet there are other things you would like to do in an ideal world rather than teach.

Oh great one, tell me what I am!

k:

 

[turambar85]

congratulations, you're applying to better schools. Maybe you can list your applications on your resume some day. I'm certain that potential employers will be blown away, much as I am right now.

Yeah, that was classy. I was just saying that to droski, who was being a bit of an ass about my career goals and likelihood of reaching them. I mentioned that I was applying to better school than UT because of his question asking where I currently attend, which, given his past statements, was leading up to some knock on my ever working. Thanks though, I was obviously just bragging.

You can tell the people with nothing important to say.

 

[turambar85]

do you really think going to grad school is more difficult than working a real job with real obligations?

Uhm, yes I think it is at least comparable. Most graduate students have to work as well, while spending 50+ hours a week studying, reading, attending class, teaching, and writing a dissertation. All of this will be while trying to acclimate to a new city, pay a full run of bills, and without any help as my wife will be doing the same thing in Law School. Ask anybody and philosophy graduate school is one of the most difficult 5-7 years of work you can put yourself through. Try speaking only of that which you know.

 

[OrangeEmpire]

Uhm, yes I think it is at least comparable. Most graduate students have to work as well, while spending 50+ hours a week studying, reading, attending class, teaching, and writing a dissertation. All of this will be while trying to acclimate to a new city, pay a full run of bills, and without any help as my wife will be doing the same thing in Law School. Ask anybody and philosophy graduate school is one of the most difficult 5-7 years of work you can put yourself through. Try speaking only of that which you know.

Are you talking teaching jobs, or jobs in general?

 

[droski]

Uhm, yes I think it is at least comparable. Most graduate students have to work as well, while spending 50+ hours a week studying, reading, attending class, teaching, and writing a dissertation. All of this will be while trying to acclimate to a new city, pay a full run of bills, and without any help as my wife will be doing the same thing in Law School. Ask anybody and philosophy graduate school is one of the most difficult 5-7 years of work you can put yourself through. Try speaking only of that which you know.

I know many a phd student, not just grad students. Some at MIT in engineering and others at Cal in classics, engineering, and english. None have a job other than teaching classes or research at the university which shouldnt' be a problem at all if you really are going to an elite grad school (they'll pay you to go there if you have half a brain). None work anywhere near to 2,000 hours a year (40 hours a week times 50 weeks (2 vacation) in year). The english and classics students probably average closer to 20 hours a week of actual work. If your are working over 40 hours a week as a grad student, you just aren't that smart. edit: my ex gf was a law student at a top-15 law school. she probably averaged 25 hours a week of actual work. even less by her second and third year. she finished in the top 10% of her class. and all of these people had infinitely more free time than i do.

 

[turambar85]

Are you talking teaching jobs, or jobs in general?

Jobs in general. I've known people who have done law school and phil. graduate school. I've known people who have been a marine and gone to phil. graduate school. I've known people who have worked construction and gone to phil. graduate school. It was, in all cases, by far the toughest thing they have ever experienced. I have never met anybody who has suggested somebody go to phil. graduate school - which is odd, as usually people want to preach their gospel and pimp their profession.

And I'm only saying this in response to certain posts above me. I'm in no way patting myself on the back. I haven't done it yet, so may not be able to, and I am doing what I love while trying.

 

[lawgator1]

Florida routinely institutes controls on the price of gas after a hurricane. Does anyone here think that's a bad thing?

 

[gasguy98]

Instead of a lame idea like price controls why not do away with all the damn taxes on these necessities?

 

[KB5252]

Florida routinely institutes controls on the price of gas after a hurricane. Does anyone here think that's a bad thing?

Yes but that is after the average price there is nearly $1.00 per gallon higher than any where else. They have artificially inflated the cost already, got to do something to keep gas below $10.00 per gallon!

 

[OrangeEmpire]

Jobs in general. I've known people who have done law school and phil. graduate school. I've known people who have been a marine and gone to phil. graduate school. I've known people who have worked construction and gone to phil. graduate school. It was, in all cases, by far the toughest thing they have ever experienced. I have never met anybody who has suggested somebody go to phil. graduate school - which is odd, as usually people want to preach their gospel and pimp their profession.

And I'm only saying this in response to certain posts above me. I'm in no way patting myself on the back. I haven't done it yet, so may not be able to, and I am doing what I love while trying.

For the sake of discussion, you believe that a 5-7 stretch for an active duty marine/army is not as hard on a person and their family as graduate school?

 

[volinbham]

didn't price control cause alot of problems in Cali a few years ago when they had massive blackouts due to lack of energy?

people were blaming it on deregulation but the problem was that the cal gov wouldn't allow the energy companies to raise rates so they could invest to make and fix more plants.

I believe it's quite common for utilities to have pricing flexibility but to be required to submit price increases to some type of board for approval to ensure they aren't gouging customers.

I wouldn't necessarily call that price controls - perhaps margin controls. When I think price controls I think more of price caps that are artificially set by some government body.

 

[gasguy98]

Florida routinely institutes controls on the price of gas after a hurricane. Does anyone here think that's a bad thing?

Of course not but they do that to prevent price gouging which is illegal and has nothing to do with markets determining the price.

 

[turambar85]

I know many a phd student, not just grad students. Some at MIT in engineering and others at Cal in classics, engineering, and english. None have a job other than teaching classes or research at the university which shouldnt' be a problem at all if you really are going to an elite grad school (they'll pay you to go there if you have half a brain). None work anywhere near to 2,000 hours a year (40 hours a week times 50 weeks (2 vacation) in year). The english and classics students probably average closer to 20 hours a week of actual work. If your are working over 40 hours a week as a grad student, you just aren't that smart.

Wow.......I'm speechless. That's a first. 9 hours of coursework a semester, 3 hours of teaching a semester. That alone is 12 hours. Do you know what it would take to make a lesson plan? To grade 40 essays on business ethics? To throw in reading Aristotle's Categories to write a 15 page essay? The reading alone for one class was over 7 hours a week - and that was how long it took the professor to do it. That's just the reading, for one class. You cannot do this degree program without dedicating 5+ years of 45-50 hours a week of work.

 

[OrangeEmpire]

Florida routinely institutes controls on the price of gas after a hurricane. Does anyone here think that's a bad thing?

Yes, government should get out of our lives.

 

[turambar85]

For the sake of discussion, you believe that a 5-7 stretch for an active duty marine/army is not as hard on a person and their family as graduate school?

For that time period, according to the marine. I am sure that for different people it would lead to different experiences, but this guy was teary after an oral final, and dropped out of the PHD program.

 

[OrangeEmpire]

For that time period, according to the marine. I am sure that for different people it would lead to different experiences, but this guy was teary after an oral final, and dropped out of the PHD program.

Your sample is one marine?

:nono:

 

[droski]

Wow.......I'm speechless. That's a first. 9 hours of coursework a semester, 3 hours of teaching a semester. That alone is 12 hours. Do you know what it would take to make a lesson plan? To grade 40 essays on business ethics? To throw in reading Aristotle's Categories to write a 15 page essay? The reading alone for one class was over 7 hours a week - and that was how long it took the professor to do it. That's just the reading, for one class. You cannot do this degree program without dedicating 5+ years of 45-50 hours a week of work.

:cray: what a crock of bs. how about the 3 months of vacation you aren't mentioning? it takes you 7 hours a week to read? you'd fail miserably in the real world. and let's also point out that you havent' done it yet so how can you possibly tell me it takes 45-50 hours a week?

 

[BigPapaVol]

Wow.......I'm speechless. That's a first. 9 hours of coursework a semester, 3 hours of teaching a semester. That alone is 12 hours. Do you know what it would take to make a lesson plan? To grade 40 essays on business ethics? To throw in reading Aristotle's Categories to write a 15 page essay? The reading alone for one class was over 7 hours a week - and that was how long it took the professor to do it. That's just the reading, for one class. You cannot do this degree program without dedicating 5+ years of 45-50 hours a week of work.

that's amusing, but very hard to be sure.

 

[OrangeEmpire]

:cray: what a crock of bs. how about the 3 months of vacation you aren't mentioning? you'd fail miserably in the real world.

I wanna be next, tell me what I am missing out on!!!!!

Should I start that toilet seat company like I have always wanted too?

 

[turambar85]

Your sample is one marine?

:nono:

In all fairness, I was simply listing professions that people with phil. PhDs have had before their coursework, and saying how each found phil. graduate work harder. I guess I could have found all marines who went into a phil. graduate program, but that would just be a bit time consuming, no?

 

[volinbham]

Let's be honest though - even in a 50 hour work week; 50 hours of work isn't being done. There's some time posting to message boards, time spent talking to colleagues, time spent dreaming about which secretaries you'd like to bang. Some personal phone calls, some Internet surfing, etc.

 

[turambar85]

:cray: what a crock of bs. how about the 3 months of vacation you aren't mentioning? it takes you 7 hours a week to read? you'd fail miserably in the real world.

:bad:

That 3 months vacation time is spent working, or doing more coursework, sometimes teaching summer classes. I don't know a damn person who was able to spend their summer doing what you suspect ... which I guess is lying around smoking pot in their government housing....

 

[BigPapaVol]

In all fairness, I was simply listing professions that people with phil. PhDs have had before their coursework, and saying how each found phil. graduate work harder. I guess I could have found all marines who went into a phil. graduate program, but that would just be a bit time consuming, no?

philosophy grad work sounds absolutely grueling. I'm amazed that anyone on earth can handle it, even former Marines who cry.

 

[BigPapaVol]

Let's be honest though - even in a 50 hour work week; 50 hours of work isn't being done. There's some time posting to message boards, time spent talking to colleagues, time spent dreaming about which secretaries you'd like to bang. Some personal phone calls, some Internet surfing, etc.

you don't seem to understand the rigors of graduate level work.

 

[droski]

I wanna be next, tell me what I am missing out on!!!!!

Should I start that toilet seat company like I have always wanted too?

definetly. after you receive your full pension which is 80+% of your final years salary i'm sure you'll have lots of the governments money to spend and lots of time to spend it. and i certainly can understand why you can work another job and get 100% of your pension.