Of supply closets, Board Rooms, and Clean Latrines

THE NEWSAPER HEADLINE in a renowned college town announced: "university system to see tuition increase". Well, OK then, so be it. A smaller caption right below it said "board of regents unamimously votes to increase university president's salary from $335,000.00 to $455,000.00".

At that point, a light went on, and a red flag went up. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, perhaps. Or, perhaps, something.....something....indisputably, the president of any unvierstiy deserves to make a decent living. After all, only a select few citizens are even capable of negotiating the vast labyrinth of bureaucratic entanglements that comprise a university system. Maybe.

Everyone who works, and provides an essential service, like athletes and entertainers, deserves a decent income. Enter the classic conservative, capitalistic argument: anyone can be a janitor, but hardly anyone can be a university president or a good actor or ballplayer, thus, in such rarified regions of achievement, it is the actor or chancellor or ballplayer who should, and thus does, get the gold.

Enter the liberal socialistic argument; we all need about the same things, in terms of food, clothing, and shelter, and the janitor provides a service as important as the president, so, pay them equally. See how well the president functions with a filthy office and latrine!

The nuts and bolts is: given that some jobs are more difficult and rarified of skill sets, just how extreme in difference should income levels be? Does the university president really need or deserve such a huge pay increase while the poor students and their parents are forced to scrape together ever more to pay for an education? Would, say, a salary increase of a mere fifty grand per suffice to clean the prez's latrine?

Your call. Suffice tho say, at socialistic public universities across the fruited plain, the capitalistic, pyrimidal argument prevails, usually unanimously. Prestigious, usually wealthy members of boards of regents across aforementioned fruited plain invariably take the free market approach, and render wealth unto thte top dog far in advance of the little guy, after the fashion of a corporate board of directors, and CEO's, and assembly line workers. After the fashion of american government, and government employees, and lower ranking government employees.

Even in a socialistic structure, capitalism prevails, the pyramid is erected. One might wonder why on earth, or in supply closets, loosely knit groups of bottom feeders don't hang out, gather together in barns, and discuss things a bit. They might even decide to form their own club. but perish the thought. Next thing you know, the top brass would be confronted with something called "worker's unions", which would undoubtedly be nothing but a rabble rousing bunch of trouble makers, determined to grab a bigger piece of the pie, giving even greater headeaches to presidents and CEOs and boards of directors, in their shiny offices, and clean latrines.