Rand: I can send you some photos of office doors from the basement of Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, of how the graduate student/postdoctoral fellow/technician in scientific academia sees the Governor and by extension his Right Blogosphere supporters right now.
Its nothing personal and nothing really that political as these people are largely science and engineering geeks focused on their work, it is just that the 8 percent pay cut is having an impact on people working at low pay to begin with. And don’t tell them that it is not a cut but but some manner of “adjustment in how their benefits are payed for” as these are research engineers with little patience for word play and political spin.
Given the prominence of public universities and government labs in scientific research, the preponderance of people in scientific academia right now are PSEs — some of them union, many of them non-union, but judging by comments here and your blog-roll partners Chicago Boyz and Instapundit are seen as Ayn Rand’s “moochers, parasites, and leeches.”
I am not talking about some arm-wavy Gender Studies or whatever academic types, I am talking about hard-core engineering, physical, and biological science types. Do people in the Right Blogosphere want to alienate these people — your site is maybe not that bad but your blogroll partner Chicago Boyz has gone off the deep end demonizing PSEs.
Technicians see each other as Chuck Norris? The space program would be a lot more advanced if that perception were based on reality.
Chuck Norris doesn’t need heavy lift — his roundhouse kicks work just fine.
Rand: I can send you some photos of office doors from the basement of Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, of how the graduate student/postdoctoral fellow/technician in scientific academia sees the Governor and by extension his Right Blogosphere supporters right now.
This reminds me of a line of questions I pursued with a few of the protesters over the past few months here in Wisconsin:
Q:Why are you protesting?
A: For the workers.
Q: Who are these workers?
A: Teachers, etc.
Q: Do you think these workers have better jobs — considering pay and benefits — than the average Wisconsin taxpayer?
A: Better.
Q: Why are you protesting for the economic upper half?
A: ???!!!
As someone working in the private sector who has seen my take home pay drop 20% in the past 2 years due to cuts in my hours and increases in the costs I pay for benefits (and who has seen many of my coworkers lose their jobs), it’s hard to feel much sympathy for government employees having to contribute a bit to their benefits which, combined with near lifetime employment, are far better than my own. It also goes to confirm the liberal bias in your institution and the greed of people who keep demanding ever more from the pay of taxpayers to maintain the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed.
Heh, as a technician myself this is so true.
Rand: I can send you some photos of office doors from the basement of Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, of how the graduate student/postdoctoral fellow/technician in scientific academia sees the Governor and by extension his Right Blogosphere supporters right now.
Its nothing personal and nothing really that political as these people are largely science and engineering geeks focused on their work, it is just that the 8 percent pay cut is having an impact on people working at low pay to begin with. And don’t tell them that it is not a cut but but some manner of “adjustment in how their benefits are payed for” as these are research engineers with little patience for word play and political spin.
Given the prominence of public universities and government labs in scientific research, the preponderance of people in scientific academia right now are PSEs — some of them union, many of them non-union, but judging by comments here and your blog-roll partners Chicago Boyz and Instapundit are seen as Ayn Rand’s “moochers, parasites, and leeches.”
I am not talking about some arm-wavy Gender Studies or whatever academic types, I am talking about hard-core engineering, physical, and biological science types. Do people in the Right Blogosphere want to alienate these people — your site is maybe not that bad but your blogroll partner Chicago Boyz has gone off the deep end demonizing PSEs.
Technicians see each other as Chuck Norris? The space program would be a lot more advanced if that perception were based on reality.
Chuck Norris doesn’t need heavy lift — his roundhouse kicks work just fine.
Rand: I can send you some photos of office doors from the basement of Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, of how the graduate student/postdoctoral fellow/technician in scientific academia sees the Governor and by extension his Right Blogosphere supporters right now.
Paul, your post reminded me of this post from Ann Althouse’s site this morning (reformatted):
This reminds me of a line of questions I pursued with a few of the protesters over the past few months here in Wisconsin:
Q:Why are you protesting?
A: For the workers.
Q: Who are these workers?
A: Teachers, etc.
Q: Do you think these workers have better jobs — considering pay and benefits — than the average Wisconsin taxpayer?
A: Better.
Q: Why are you protesting for the economic upper half?
A: ???!!!
As someone working in the private sector who has seen my take home pay drop 20% in the past 2 years due to cuts in my hours and increases in the costs I pay for benefits (and who has seen many of my coworkers lose their jobs), it’s hard to feel much sympathy for government employees having to contribute a bit to their benefits which, combined with near lifetime employment, are far better than my own. It also goes to confirm the liberal bias in your institution and the greed of people who keep demanding ever more from the pay of taxpayers to maintain the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed.