Ranger: I think it’s wrong that you make a profit on public lands
Me: So you work for free?
Ranger: Huh?
Me: If you think it’s wrong to make money on public lands, I assume you must volunteer, else you too would be making money on public lands
Ranger: No, of course I get paid.
Me: Well, I know what I make for profit in your District, and I have a good guess what your salary probably is, and I can assure you that you make at least twice as much as me on these public lands.
Ranger: But that is totally different.
I find this also in public health care. The nurses and doctors claiming that for profit health care is not right while they are busy sucking all the dollars and cents they can out of it. They are in it for their profit. Otherwise volunteer.
The US Forest Service is actually engaged in feudal landlord activities. Once an agency that managed public lands for all users including sustainably harvesting timber, it now pretty much practices “stand and stare” forest management. It used to return rents to the federal treasury but now is a liability. It’s almost impossible to find data on their (lack of harvesting) but all PC mandates such as minority hiring and contracting is boldly highlighted in its reports. USFS and BLM lands should be parceled and sold off to parties on a competitive basis at market prices reflecting highest economic use. That means that property featuring intrinsic high value ecological or recreation land for example, should go to those who place a high value on such things. As things stand today, the price is zero and apparent demand is therefore infinite,and it belongs to the King (federal government).
I’m sorry–I don’t buy that one–I don’t think the ranger is profiting from public lands, he’s merely protecting them as a wage earner. I could be a security guard at a Monsanto warehouse, my wages would not be considered profit. If I own shares in Monsanto, then the capital gain (loss) is a profit, or a loss. And I do believe that all nations need public lands. Road allowances, for example, are public lands set aside so we can travel freely. National Parks are protected areas that would have long ago disappeared had governments not set them aside.
We have that problem in rural municipalities. In SW Sask, many farmers have total disrespect for the 33 Ft road allowances that belong to the crown. They just farm over it and to hell with the neighbours who need it. The same goes for the assholes who get on the highway with grain trucks and have no respect for weight restrictions, destroying our roads. They’re all big capitalists until the rain stops or the flood starts, then they whine to Ottawa or Washington for subsides.
A lot of people sucking on the taxpayer teat will have similar claims.
Don’t despair to much – you can find a lot of your commie kindred in Regina … or check out the university’s.
Let me say this to even the lame brains – if you are getting paid for “something” YOU are making a profit. Would you work for me for nothing? Would you expect someone to pay YOU if they received nothing in return? If the answer to the last question was “yes” … join the local ndp or commie (is there a difference) party.
Common Cents wrote: “I could be a security guard at a Monsanto warehouse, my wages would not be considered profit.”
Sigh. You just don’t get fundamental economics do you? When Clinton said during the debate that she wants to see more “profit sharing” by those who make profits possible (in Marx speak, that would be the worker). However, the Donald wasn’t nearly as quick off the mark as a radio caller who said, “we have profit sharing already, it’s called a paycheck”. Where do you think the money for your paycheque comes from? The difference between costs and sales is what butters your bread.
When I really want to get a ‘civil servant’ wound up, I remind them that they don’t pay taxes, they just pass along the taxes I’ve contributed to their own paycheques.
Had a discussion with a park warden in back of Egypt lake in 2013. He said as far as he was concerned no one should be in the back country. I said I guess we wouldn’t be needing him then.
No he would still be necessary he figured.
So you and your horse would have a 5000 sq km park to yourself, thanks for sharing with the taxpayers,
I just walked on.
Another government employee above the rest of us.
By the way those trails haven’t been cleared or fixed for the previous 10 years when I came through the same path . At one time you would meet Indian trail crews back there.
NoGuff: I understand what you say.
Profit is a word that is generally used in business to describe the margin between an acquisition cost and what’s left after the final sale. If I cut firewood on a forest lot that cost $1000 an acre and I sell it for $5500 an acre, less the cost of cutting and hauling, that’s my profit.
The ranger is merely paid a wage to watch over the land under his jurisdiction. I know there are 1000s of situations when dealing with public lands, and there are a lot of disputes when it comes to private VS public lands.
I have an American friend who is coming to SW Sask to hunt later this fall. He was as strong a Republican as I am a CPC supporter. This election he’s not supporting the Republicans simply because Trump, if elected, is (allegedly) selling off public lands. So I’m not alone in my belief that some things are best if they’re simply left alone.
Here’s a song that describes a situation where the customer did not profit from the ranger’s actions.
https://youtu.be/OntwwcBVe6o
My personal favorite are all the “Non Profit” Eco-law firms who sue on behalf of the State of CA, and are paid by taxpayer funds. The multiple high 6-figure salaries paid to all these “Not-for-profit” corporation employees are so piggish that there would never be any $$$ left-over to share with anyone else. Profits stuffed into the pockets of so called non-profit executives are as dishonest as the Clinton Foundation. Most all “non-profits” are FOR the profit of a select few.
Humph, he’s still riding on the coattails of public lands…without public lands he’d be out of a job. Just a janitor for the gov’t. The difference between wasting 10 cents or 8 cents…
And, duh, wages are a profit upon one’s labour…selling labour is no different than selling wood.
The ranger in the park is not a good example of profit for public service.
A few good examples are:
1. University professors who are paid a full time salary with benefits and pension plan AND are also allowed to consult to private industry.
2. Senior scientists within the Federal Government who, in addition to their full time jobs, also act as consultants on the side, many times to the very same people or companies that they help through the government sponsored research programs.
3. Having to pay for scientific articles that represent research paid for by the government. For scientists who work for the government or university their enrollment in these publishing scams is paid for so all their articles are free. But for private industry you either have to pay to join or pay for each article you download. The latter is especially painful because most of the articles are crap these days.
Let’s say the Ranger had a side business guiding people through the park for a profit. That would be wrong.
Or how about Justin Trudeau getting paid as a full time MP and then charging $10-$30,000 for speaking engagements. That would be very wrong.
Or how about Justin Trudeau inheriting most of his money from his grandfather who owned a series of gas stations and Trudeau becoming a champion of global warming and green energy while not giving up his fossil fuel inheritance. That wouldn’t be wrong, just typically hypocritical.
I have always said that wages are profit.
If I get up in the morning, go out and engage in some activity, and at the end of the day I have more money than I started with, then I have made a profit from my activity. Period. Workers profit by being paid a salary. No amount of leftist word juggling will change that simple fact.
If I get up in the morning, go out and engage in some activity, and at the end of the day I have more money than I started with, then I have made a profit from my activity. Period. Workers profit by being paid a salary. No amount of leftist word juggling will change that simple fact.
You obviously do not understand American Law or the Constitution. All public land belonged to the SOVEREIGN state. The federal government has bend raping (in the latin sense) OUR public lands and any private lands they can get away with. These are raped supposedly for the public benefit. Such benefits such as crooked hillary’s “selling” uranium to the soviets and dirty harry Reid’s seizing lands for the benefit of his Chinese contributors. I think that I should inform you that your friend has no problem with what Trump wanting to give the land back to the states, but with he and his fellow Rino being cut off from their source of graft.
Quite amazing,to me, is the fact that the money to pay these “public servant” is taken by threat of violence from the public,who if we fail to make a profit have no money to pay the parasites with.
But profit is evil,in the words of the entitled parasites.
You cannot cure stupid.
Maybe it is time to select an area we can defend and oust the freeloaders.
I am quite curious as to how a modern society might prosper without all the useless help.
Indeed.
At MOT offices in Ontario, or SAAQ offices in Quebec, one often sees signs saying “Violence and intimidation will not be tolerated on these premises.”
I once asked a lady at the SAAQ if she was aware of the irony of those posters, and she didn’t understand. When I explained to her that no-one would be here giving their money away were it not for violence and intimidation of drivers by the police, she got a bit of the deer-in-the-headlights look.
Indeed wages are ‘for profit’.
Problem is, Lefties think ‘profit’ is a four lettered word.
Now you know where Common Core education came from…
You know as well as I do that the sign means that the cops won’t put up with violence within the premises. No cops!! Gee, that would be a great society to live in!! What do you propose?? The army directing traffic?? Or would you be doing that?? That goes well with people who believe that automobiles don’t need plates or insurance, drivers don’t need to be licensed, and
they shouldn’t pay income tax, hell, the roads will build themselves.
Thanks to that type of reasoning, Hillary (Sept 29) is 5 points ahead in the polls. (Fox News)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html
You do know that human civilization has been going on for thousands of years and that police are a comparatively recent invention, don’t you?
As with Mike, above, I have this same discussion in the health care field. Ideologues typically claim to abhor anyone “making money” off health care or “profiting from people’s suffering”, at which point I point out to them the fact they they are profiting in the amount of their earnings. At that point they invariably like to say that that’s “different” without ever indicating how.
Likewise with respect to discussions about the supposed virtues of “non-profit” organizations I like to point out that simply designating an organization “non-profit” does’t mean there aren’t people making an awful lot of money out of it; vis Greenpeace or the NFL.