News Disney World Cast Member unions to begin week of negotiations for wage increases, healthcare costs and more

[flynnibus]

Just personally experience, but a large number of private business owners I have worked with have the mentality that their employees are basically stealing from them and honestly can't believe people expect raises, benefits, a competitive salary, etc. Not all, I have seen some pretty great ones too but there are a disturbing amount of the previous type.

Yes, some people get soured by a few bad experiences and can't shake the past. As they often say... a few bad apples...

Bit of a tangent but I don't think a lot of people who succeeded in life understand just how much luck plays a role as well. I get it, no one wants to hear anything that takes away from their hard work but it's true.

Luck maybe part of the outcome for success... but know what isn't? Apathay and lack of self-responsibility.

You don't usually find people that say "Luck had nothing to do with it" -- but conversely you won't find people preaching "just sit around and wait for success... you'll eventually win the luck lottery".

The idea that working hard is not mutually exclusive to also getting something falling in your favor. But it VERY rarely works the otherway around where you just get success with only luck.

That's why people don't focus on it as a element of success. It alone isn't going to do it, nor is it really the backbone.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Also, the perceived value of a college degree by employers has changed dramatically in the past 30 years.

I’ve hired at all levels from entry level to C Suite and at one time a degree, especially from a prestigious university, was a compelling selling point for a candidate.

Unfortunately, once the “everybody should go to college” movement started, followed by “nobody should have to pay for college”, and universities were turned into diploma mills in partnership with federal government loans, it has diluted what a college degree represents to employers.

So now you have people graduating from formerly prestigious universities with degrees that hold significantly less weight and are even more frustrated when they are not presented with the same economic opportunities of previous alumni.

Every action has a reaction. If you lower the standards for college admission and flood the marketplace with degrees, the value decreases. The colleges make out like bandits, the students not so much.

Is their any actual evidence that the standards of college admission have fallen? Everything I can find seems to say it’s harder to get into a good university then it used to be. And when, exactly, do you think the “everyone should go to college” push began? Because I’d date it to the G I Bill in the wake of WWII.

 

[Tom P.]

Yes! Abolish the federal student loan program!

Based and free-market-pilled.

Absolutely!

The federal student loan program is so unfair, and predatory, and life-crushing that we have to forgive everyone's debt. But... we're gonna keep making new loans. Makes total sense.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Absolutely!

The federal student loan program is so unfair, and predatory, and life-crushing that we have to forgive everyone's debt. But... we're gonna keep making new loans. Makes total sense.

I guess I was one of the stupid ones who actually paid my student loan back. It took ten years, but I paid it back.

 

[flynnibus]

Is their any actual evidence that the standards of college admission have fallen? Everything I can find seems to say it’s harder to get into a good university then it used to be. And when, exactly, do you think the “everyone should go to college” push began? Because I’d date it to the G I Bill in the wake of WWII.

Well... common sense would tell you that the number of people who are getting into college now based on WWII participation is pretty slim.. and the number of modern day Vets is low compared to total college admissions. So pretty easy to write that theory off. Plus, the simple facts of percentage of HS students applying to colleges. Don't confuse 'enablement' with 'push'.

The issue has been the federally back student loan programs (and the private industry that profits along with it) that removed most of the burden of qualifying for loans... which in turn broke the normal feedback loop of back pressure on costs. Without the back pressure, the schools have no resistence to raising prices (because no one is paying them directly). And then the schools get fat on the new money flooding in and can't adapt to anything less. So now school's can't figure out how to function with lower tuition costs... and the burden of the loans is finally being felt by an entire generation.. and the next generation is facing impossible stats. The 'everyone should goto college' thing was more a thing in the 80s I'd say... and really ramped up in the decades after. In the 70s... they were still pushing to get most kids to finish HS period as system wide goals.

20yrs ago I gambled that "no way this trajectory can continue... something has to break..." when they were estimating I'd need 200k+ to pay for my kid's college and I didn't want to pay for a pre-paid program. I assumed it couldn't possibly get that high without something breaking first. Of course... I was wrong, and the system hasn't broken yet and costs are very much in that line. (Expect 25-50k/yr right now).

 

[Ayla]

And we were latchkey kids because my dad worked 2 jobs and my mom worked full time just to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table… experiences vary, just because your family survived on one income back in the day doesn’t make that the norm.

I’d wager your father made a substantial amount over minimum wage as a manager at a supermarket.

Sounds like you came from a middle class family so that’s your reality, meanwhile I came from a fairly poor family that had a lot of struggles so that’s my reality. The idea that we had it easy back then annoys the hell out of me though because it couldn’t be further from the truth. That wasn’t my parents reality or my reality.

Not saying it should be hard for everyone because we had it hard, but the idea it should be easy because we had it easy is a fallacy that needs to stop, it’s flat out wrong.

Growing up, we "survived" on one income, the income of a single mother with three daughters who got zero support (financial or otherwise) from my worthless father. If it wasn't for my maternal grandparents and the food pantry, we wouldn't have had a place to live or food to eat some weeks.

Yeah, my reality was not all that rosy as a kid...and thank god my children never had to live like I did.

I still don't think "yeah, my childhood and early adulthood sucked, so everyone else's should, too". Not a chance.

 

[JD80]

Personally, I think an associates degree should be "free" just like a High School education is "free" (paid for by taxes). Just like High School became mandatory a hundred years ago, the world has become completely different. Probably time to add additional years of school to what is considered a minimal education for our society.

 

[Andrew C]

Personally, I think an associates degree should be "free" just like a High School education is "free" (paid for by taxes). Just like High School became mandatory a hundred years ago, the world has become completely different. Probably time to add additional years of school to what is considered a minimal education for our society.

Ehh. Better off going to a trade school and learning a skill that will likely be in demand forever.

 

[kingdead]

Again--it's nice that you all have earned your college degrees, paid back your loans, bought seven houses, seven boats, and seven cars--but how does this apply to Disney World CMs?

The extremes always get the attention. We all want CMs to have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies but that discussion ultimately leads to “what’s a reasonable standard of living”. Is it as extreme as having 4 roommates to help cover the bills, having 1 roommate to split costs, being able to afford your own studio apartment, owning your own home, or the other extreme of owning your own home and supporting a family on 1 minimum wage job?

That‘s the heart of the discussion.

I think something that often gets overlooked in marketable “skills” is attitude and personality. You don’t need a college degree or decades of experience to be ”worth” more, especially when it comes to the customer service industry, I‘ve worked in Vegas for 20 years and I’ll hire a great personality over a college degree 90% of the time. Personality is the true value of a CM, some are worth far more than they are paid, some are worth far less, unfortunately they all get paid the same regardless of how well they perform the job.

Exactly--this is about what the standard of living should be in a job in which a college education is very much optional. Your customer service skills and your ability to make people feel at ease are so important, just like they are in the Vegas market. I wonder how Orlando and Vegas compare, actually--whether somebody in Orlando who has those abilities has the same, better, or worse opportunities than they do in Vegas. (Obviously there are some things that you can use to your advantage in Vegas that might not be so valuable in Orlando...)

 

[flynnibus]

Personally, I think an associates degree should be "free" just like a High School education is "free" (paid for by taxes). Just like High School became mandatory a hundred years ago, the world has become completely different. Probably time to add additional years of school to what is considered a minimal education for our society.

Know what's free in my county? An amazing Vocational Program that has everything from paramedic, to computer security, to HVAC, to auto body, to plumbing, etc. It's actually amaze-balls... to see high school kids taking cyber security classes... getting hands on training they can actually USE to get a job. Not just another english lit class.

Literally you can get real world job training without needing an AA that is going to do what for most people? Have them take a few more semesters of history and english?

 

[Lilofan]

Ehh. Better off going to a trade school and learning a skill that will likely be in demand forever.

Or in some foreign countries where higher education is free and or highly subsidized. Perhaps they are seeing how heavily some in the USA starting off heavy in debt after college.

 

[RobWDW1971]

Percentage of population in 1980 with a 4 year degree about 35%, in 2021 about 76%.

Certainly more jobs today require a degree and having a more educated population is a positive (one can debate the quality of the diplomas being churned out), but from a supply/demand standpoint it does not have the weight of 40 years ago.

From an employer recruiting standpoint, I find the degrees almost meaningless today and I focus much more on job experience than previously.

 

[Lilofan]

Personally, I think an associates degree should be "free" just like a High School education is "free" (paid for by taxes). Just like High School became mandatory a hundred years ago, the world has become completely different. Probably time to add additional years of school to what is considered a minimal education for our society.

Want to learn a trade, skills , become an officer -join the military and get paid to learn skills. Medical and dental insurance provided / Co Pay -$0.

 

[networkpro]

People should have the ability to attain what they deem to be higher education without fear of destitution through predatory government & private loans regardless of their intent, and your attempt to grammar nazi me doesn't belittle my ultimate point.

With their own money, they are free to do as they choose. When they choose to go into debt to do without any idea or chance that they will be able to repay that debt they agreed to take given their field of study that's the consequence. What you're indirectly avocating is either free money or only loans tied directly to income-producing fields of study. Making others shoulder even more consequences of poor choices by others is hardly fair.

 

[networkpro]

Want to learn a trade, skills , become an officer -join the military and get paid to learn skills. Medical and dental insurance provided / Co Pay -$0.

Only if you qualify (and that's currently less than 10% of the population). For some job categories, there are plenty that lack civilian counterparts and fewer than 17% make it to a 20-year retirement. 20 long years of soul-sucking status quo.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Percentage of population in 1980 with a 4 year degree about 35%, in 2021 about 76%.

Certainly more jobs today require a degree and having a more educated population is a positive (one can debate the quality of the diplomas being churned out), but from a supply/demand standpoint it does not have the weight of 40 years ago.

From an employer recruiting standpoint, I find the degrees almost meaningless today and I focus much more on job experience than previously.

Yes, more people are applying to university - which has made the admission process much more competitive across the board. Good universities have been able to be much more selective about who they admit. This seems to be the exact opposite of what you are saying, that admission standards have been lowered - quite the contrary.

 

[Lilofan]

Only if you qualify (and that's currently less than 10% of the population). For some job categories, there are plenty that lack civilian counterparts and fewer than 17% make it to a 20-year retirement. 20 long years of soul-sucking status quo.

My uncle enlisted in the Navy and was an aircraft mechanic on a number of warships, did his 20 years , collecting his military pension and now is working a full time job post Navy. Nothing soul sucking about it to serve your country to keep us free.

 

[Drdcm]

Want to learn a trade, skills , become an officer -join the military and get paid to learn skills. Medical and dental insurance provided / Co Pay -$0.

So I work with veterans and honestly the opportunity it provides isn’t as good as they lead you to believe. That being said, the people I see generally have to have either been combat veterans or been injured in some way related to their service. Maybe for kids that are troublemakers and need structure it’s a good opportunity, but you can get similar benefits through public service without all the potential issues military culture causes.

Caveat… I can acknowledge my bias in that I select for veterans with personality disorders and substance use issues.

 

[maddisney]

Disney World Cast Member unions to begin week of negotiations for wage increases, healthcare costs and more

The Services Trade Council Union is set to resume negotiations this week on behalf of 42000 Walt Disney World Cast Members that work on the front line of the parks and resorts.

www.wdwmagic.com

Unfortunately we make magic for guests but Disney never made any magic for us...

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Yes, more people are applying to university - which has made the admission process much more competitive across the board. Good universities have been able to be much more selective about who they admit. This seems to be the exact opposite of what you are saying, that admission standards have been lowered - quite the contrary.

If you have an associates degree, you can enroll (and in most cases) , be accepted in any 4 year school including Ivy League…the problem is if you go out of state to earn your bachelor’s, the 4 year school doesn’t have to accept all the credits. Daughter #1 lost over a full year of community college credits when she transferred and daughter #2 lost about a semester. Luckily she has a good advisor who went above and beyond to get most of her basic required classes accepted. That’s a scam too.