06-30-2008, 03:00 PM
Nice to see the constructive responses.
Let's assume you were going to rent a piece of equipment from me, for 8 hours, and the machine cost me 20000 dollars, and has a useful service life of 100000 hours. I think all of us could calculate a fair price and rate of return for the rental of that machine.
Unfortunately, when we get to renting human beings, that sort of business logic seldom applies. The "going rate" doesn't mean the fair rate, that means the "going rate." The "going rate" has a lot to do with the level of desperation present in the community. Many choose to capitalize on the "going rate," but I think it's not very difficult, if one is so inclined, to calculate in the same manner what it might cost to rent a human being, and cover those costs.
As well, I would go so far as to re-point out the, well, what I'd see as an obligation, as one who has had the privilege to bring mainland money into a depressed economy and capitalize on that privilege, to attempt to raise the depressed people in this community to that same level of privilege. This is a moral position, not a business one. Ultimately it's up to you, and may depend on where you are in life and what you're doing.
Still, I will insist, and I doubt any could sensibly disagree, that if mainlanders with mainland money paid mainland wages, the level of hatred here for mainlanderwould be a whole lot less.
Things to think about.
I guess there are two types of people. There are those who expect their friends to come volunteer and work for them for free or a case of beer, and there are those who, like myself, feel obligated to pay their friends far beyond the going rate. There's an argument to both, but I can tell you who will have more friends.
Let's assume you were going to rent a piece of equipment from me, for 8 hours, and the machine cost me 20000 dollars, and has a useful service life of 100000 hours. I think all of us could calculate a fair price and rate of return for the rental of that machine.
Unfortunately, when we get to renting human beings, that sort of business logic seldom applies. The "going rate" doesn't mean the fair rate, that means the "going rate." The "going rate" has a lot to do with the level of desperation present in the community. Many choose to capitalize on the "going rate," but I think it's not very difficult, if one is so inclined, to calculate in the same manner what it might cost to rent a human being, and cover those costs.
As well, I would go so far as to re-point out the, well, what I'd see as an obligation, as one who has had the privilege to bring mainland money into a depressed economy and capitalize on that privilege, to attempt to raise the depressed people in this community to that same level of privilege. This is a moral position, not a business one. Ultimately it's up to you, and may depend on where you are in life and what you're doing.
Still, I will insist, and I doubt any could sensibly disagree, that if mainlanders with mainland money paid mainland wages, the level of hatred here for mainlanderwould be a whole lot less.
Things to think about.
I guess there are two types of people. There are those who expect their friends to come volunteer and work for them for free or a case of beer, and there are those who, like myself, feel obligated to pay their friends far beyond the going rate. There's an argument to both, but I can tell you who will have more friends.