So much for going down the plumbing route

[threaded]

If you end up with a girlfriend who can do plumbing you'll find her much more useful than one fits carpet.

[The Master]

This is how it seems to me:

Scenario One
Contractor: Fark me, these plumbers are costing me an arm and a leg. Clearly they are just jumped up greedy bastards and the government should do something about it.
Plumber: Hey pal, that's just market forces in operation for you and my cost is set by the market. If you don't like it, well plenty of other people do.

Scenario Two
IT Client: Fark me, these contractors are costing me an arm and a leg. Clearly they are just jumped up greedy bastards and the government should do something about it.
Contractor: Hey pal, that's just market forces in operation for you and my cost is set by the market. If you don't like it, well plenty of other people do.

What's good for the goose and all that.

[DodgyAgent]

Threaded's post just shores up my opinion that degrees are a waste of time for most people!!!!. Especially in IT. Judging from from some of the people I've come into contact with I think they must have given them away but it doesn't stop alot of them thinking they are uber beings and the rest of humanity is uneducated dross. You guessed it, I haven't a degree and this seems to really upset some permies, good.

I think you are the one who has a problem/chip with regards to degrees not the permies

[Jabberwocky]

When will you halfwits learn - the price in a free market is determined not by costs or by even by competition necessarily - it is set by what you as a consumer are willing to pay. This is because private companies exist to provide shareholder returns. It is not in their interest to get in a price war when everyone sets high prices and consumers are willing to pay those prices.

That is why privatising the health service is dangerous - how much are you prepared to pay for that life-saving triple heart bypass service ? Everything you have ?

Thanks very much, next please.

[DodgyAgent]

When will you halfwits learn - the price in a free market is determined not by costs or by even by competition necessarily - it is set by what you as a consumer are willing to pay. This is because private companies exist to provide shareholder returns. It is not in their interest to get in a price war when everyone sets high prices and consumers are willing to pay those prices.

That is why privatising the health service is dangerous - how much are you prepared to pay for that life-saving triple heart bypass service ? Everything you have ?

Thanks very much, next please.

There is no point in privatising anything unless the dynamics of competition, responsibility and choice can be applied. Tax should be converted to healthcare vouchers, the number of hospitals should be doubled and leased to private companies, and then set up to compete for patients.

[AlfredJPruffock]

When will you halfwits learn - the price in a free market is determined not by costs or by even by competition necessarily - it is set by what you as a consumer are willing to pay.

JW

Whilst I broadly agree with the above I do not concur that the NHS should not be privatised,be that as it may an example which confirms the above would be the rates of the Prostitutes of Amsterdam.

Before the Euro their basic rate was 50 Guilders which is appox 25 Euros, however after the Euro prices then prices rose overnight from 25 Euros to 50 Euros, and the market continued as the punters seemed happy enough to pay this exhorbitant hike.

[Gibbon]

I think you are the one who has a problem/chip with regards to degrees not the permies

Not as much as a problem with agents.

[DodgyAgent]

Not as much as a problem with agents.

You love us really

[Gibbon]

You love us really

Wouldn't quite say that. However, there are two agents I deal with and both are good. As they should be since I find the work usually and then contact them. However one inparticular has helped ME out with an awkward client.

I don't have a particular problem with Graduates, only the ones that seem to think because they've got a degree then they are automatically superior to the non-graduate population and that they should be paid more because of it.

IMO only 20-25% of people should be going to uni with correspondingly better quality courses.

At the end of the day most people (apart from agents ;-)) do important and useful jobs. It's the old body parts analogy. The brain looks down on the heart which looks down on the stomach etc until we reach the anus. The rest are knacked if the anus stops working.

[Jabberwocky]

There is no point in privatising anything unless the dynamics of competition, responsibility and choice can be applied. Tax should be converted to healthcare vouchers, the number of hospitals should be doubled and leased to private companies, and then set up to compete for patients.

And for those that don't pay tax we have the extermination booths. Quick and painless. Really we need to find a cheap way to get rid of the bodies, though.