I was listening to talk radio on the way home from work. They were discussing the impending socialization of health care. One man called in and said "Socialized medicine could never last in America. Just wait till someone's kid has to wait a long time for treatment. Everyone will be up in arms..." - something like that.
I don't have high hopes about opposition to socialized medicine when I see so little resistance to socialized education.
For more than three generations now, parents (mine included) have happily handed their most precious children off to the state for 12 years of soul-norming regulation. Six hours a day, five days a week, the state does its best to remake these children into easily managed units, with the lowest common denominator as their model. Of course, it's all with the best of intentions. "Without the state, (other) parents would just let their offspring wallow in ignorance."
The ill effects of socialized education are clear, and have been for a very long time. How can anyone think that the state will do a better job with health care? And yet, it's coming. Like a vampire, we have to invite it into our home. Once it's in - look out!
29 March 2007
28 March 2007
A Compensation Analyst?
Companies buy labor. My job is to make sure that we don't overpay for labor, and are thus less profitable, or underpay for labor, and not have enough of the right kind of laborers to get done the things we need to get done.
So, I look at lots of surveys of what other companies are paying their folks to do things. I also look at what we are paying our own people to do those same (ideally) things, and I do lots of math to try and make it all make sense.
What makes this even the tiniest bit interesting is that we are pricing people's time.
It isn't steel that is sure it should be priced at X instead of Y. After all, it's buddy was purchased by General Motors at X, and you both had the same GPA in graduate school. Don't I know how critical steel is to the success of this company?
No, I deal with people's pay - their beer money, their retirement dreams, their egos - and that makes it somewhat interesting.
I hope that I don't have to write much more on Compensation, but you never know.
So, I look at lots of surveys of what other companies are paying their folks to do things. I also look at what we are paying our own people to do those same (ideally) things, and I do lots of math to try and make it all make sense.
What makes this even the tiniest bit interesting is that we are pricing people's time.
It isn't steel that is sure it should be priced at X instead of Y. After all, it's buddy was purchased by General Motors at X, and you both had the same GPA in graduate school. Don't I know how critical steel is to the success of this company?
No, I deal with people's pay - their beer money, their retirement dreams, their egos - and that makes it somewhat interesting.
I hope that I don't have to write much more on Compensation, but you never know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
