Golly-gee wally, sounds like you guys should think about supply and demand.

Professors have saturated the market and then complain that wages are depressed. May want to look for a different line of work. Practice saying, "I have a PhD in English. Would you care for fries with that?"

Not me. It's you imperfect crazy folks who ruin my little dream-time.

Pass the bong, will yuh?

That's not the case at all around here. Enrollment in my school has tripled since the late 80's. Full time professors are a little more than half of the 80's numbers. It has very little to do with supply and demand and everything to do with the power differential between labor and management.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Oh yeah, right. By some miracle of education is different from every other market system. That's worth studying.

All I have is anecdotal information from the town where I work, in which university coaches get paid a hell of a lot, engineers get paid less (but more than most profs) and most of liberal arts is taught by part-timers (euphemistically labeled, "adjunct" to take the sting our of it). I'm sure liberal arts profs at other schools are held in much higher esteem than some backwoods diploma mill like mine.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Demand does not exceed supply. Most 'part time' employees actually teach more classes than 'full-time' employees although they teach at a number of different schools. This fact is well known amongst management who are concerned that if all the part timers only taught the same number of classes as full timers, they would have to reduce the number of classes taught because the supply of professors is inadequate.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

"Nothing could be farther from the truth"? NOTHING? Wow, that's one lock on truth you have there.

I gave you my local price differential for profs. I cannot speak to the entire nation but I suspect that the laws of supply and demand are not suspended at the ivory tower door.

Your supply-and-demand theory assumes that there is a competitive market for these services, doesn't it? I wonder whether that is a valid assumption, especially in public institutions.

Not to mention Catholic men. I gather that it was almost a cliche in Irish Catholic circles, that is the men horny and frustrated cuz the wife did not want to endure a 4th, 5th, or 6th child and was shutting the old man out of the bedchamber. Not by accident do a reported 98% of sexually active catholic women use birth control at least during part of their life.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

That's a fair point.

In a market economy, income attenuation requires reducing expenditures. In government they just rewrite a hot check or increase taxes. No pain, no pain!

anecdotal information always trumps the facts, of course. (aren't you a scientist by trade? might want to practice what you preach? unless, of course, you wish to arrive at predetermined conclusion before you actually examine the issue?)

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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Educate me, please. Aside from offering attacks on other folks, what have you got?

I always seem to miss a beat

kerry has already explained (from experience gleaned in academia) that universities now try to staff their teaching positions with a majority of "part timers", thereby avoiding paying benefits - i.e. health care, retirement, sabbaticals, etc.. "contract positions". having several friends and relatives in "academia", i have heard this story again and again.

is that good enough for you, mr. "free (sic) market".

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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Kerry presented his anecdote, I presented my anecdote. You like his more? Fine with me. I have been adjunct myself and I completely understand the cost-saving of the university. Nobody held a gun to my head and forced me to accept the job. I saw it as toe-in-door opportunity.

Bottom line is that the university owed me nothing and the market is seething with new graduates looking for any opportunity to get a job, any job. Makes it tough on everybody. Oh well, we can raise taxes, hire more profs, and turn universities into employment centers. It's compassionate.