4th May 2011, 03:43 PM
Sith Wrote:This whole thing is getting close to making me weep as a stark example of how society has become fixated with the cost of everything but appreciates the VALUE of nothing.
But that's the point I was trying to make. My comments in relation to nurses, teachers, plumbers and binmen were in terms of their value to society as a whole, not in terms of how much they get paid. My argument was basically that groups such as these undertake work that has some social benefit, whether this is in terms of healing the sick, educating the young, cleaning up rubbish or ensuring sanitary living conditions. Therefore they could have a claim to provide an important social function. What they actually get paid in terms of pounds, shillings and pence is not the issue. If you go down that route, that monetary remuneration is the only assessment of value, then I'd agree that it doesn't look good for archaeology. I was trying to get at the idea that there are jobs that are of social utility, beyond a simply totting-up of who earns what, and that to an extent that it's possible to get an idea of what a society values by looking at the legislation it employs. By this measure, the fact that archaeology is part of law or planning guidance can be taken as an indication that it's an area that the wider society considers to have some value beyond money alone (though I'd agree that it would be better if this were recognized in the form of higher wages!)
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum