One final note on the teachers-unions argument: The comments to the original post on the low regard for teachers relative to lawyers immediately jumped on the union thing. Commenter Doug Hering provided what’s probably the best statement of the causal link:
I do agree that teachers must be treated as professionals. However, part of that is eliminating a union. How many professional groups have unions? It seems to me that gives the impression of a non-professional class of employees.
You hear this sort of thing all the time, most frequently from engineers and computer-industry people, and other white-collar professionals who don’t have unions. It illustrates an interesting difference in perspective. They see unions as an obstacle to be removed in order to gain respect.
I read their blogs and LiveJournals bitching about work, and hear phrases like “mandatory overtime,” and my first thought is, “Son, you need a union.”