tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6722137562852954269.post1042719992248384741..comments2024-03-29T10:53:19.170+00:00Comments on Paul's Beer & Travel Blog: Look at Me Everybody!Paul Baileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09678639237696546268noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6722137562852954269.post-92093534470615553942015-01-22T20:22:22.390+00:002015-01-22T20:22:22.390+00:00Jon R, despite my earlier comment I am not going t...Jon R, despite my earlier comment I am not going to spend a lot of time replying to the points you raised about charities. My original post was about the damage campaigns such as Dry January and Dryathlon are doing to the licensed trade in general and the pub trade in particular. I stand by everything I said in the article, and in addition have not changed my mind about charities.<br /><br />You obviously have more than an interest here as, by your own admission, you work in the charity sector. Good luck to you; each of us has to earn his or her living as we see fit. None of this detracts from charities being big-business, paying their chief executives large sums of money. Many have also become self-perpetuating organisations, existing more to raise money than actually spending it on the causes they purport to support. I have no interest in how much they pay the rest of their workers, and certainly did not express an opinion on this subject in my original post. However, I would like to think that the wage paid to the typical charity worker is a sum which reflects a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.<br /><br />What is worth noting though, is the so-called charity behind Dry January is Alcohol Concern; an organisation which is a front for the temperance movement, and one which is pressing for further restrictions on drinking and curbs on people’s enjoyment.<br /><br />What is also worth noting is that when you decry someone you have never met as “an unqualified armchair fiscal pundit dispensing nuggets of pure codswallop”, you are equally guilty of making judgements every bit as wide of the mark as those you accuse me of. <br /><br />Finally, I don’t swig my beer and neither do I drink Old Speckled Hen. One further example of making unsubstantiated judgements! <br />Paul Baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09678639237696546268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6722137562852954269.post-13402990488195887902015-01-21T21:04:08.476+00:002015-01-21T21:04:08.476+00:00Thank-you for your comments Jon R and for your wel...Thank-you for your comments Jon R and for your well thought out criticisms regarding my views on the charity sector.<br /><br />I am currently drafting what I hope is an equally well thought out response, and will reply to the points you have raised in a day or two’s time.<br />Paul Baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09678639237696546268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6722137562852954269.post-74926269976752533992015-01-21T14:38:03.703+00:002015-01-21T14:38:03.703+00:00I work full time in the charity sector and also o...I work full time in the charity sector and also operate a small commercial brewery. I have no personal intention of ever participating in Dryathlon *shudder* and agree with most of the criticisms I hear of it from people involved in the beer trade.<br /><br />Unfortunately in this blog post you've repeated a tiresome fallacy that people who work for charities ought to be doing so primarily out of the goodness of their hearts and in return for lower wages than people working in other industries. I do not see why this is the case. Few other professions (either those of high social utility, such as nurses, or low social utility, such as lettings agents) are routinely told by The Man In The Street that they should seek a lower income and lower quality of life than anyone else, dress in sack cloth and model themselves on Teresa of Calcutta for their nine-to-five.<br /><br />Crypto-bourgeois chief executives excepted, everyone in the charity sector is just a worker like anyone else and deserves to be paid a fair wage and to work in a pleasant environment. Your friend, the database expert, undoubtedly does a good job and does not deserve to have his or her family holidays publicly questioned by an unqualified armchair fiscal pundit dispensing nuggets of pure codswallop in between swigs of Old Speckled Hen.<br /><br />I also wonder how you suppose charities would effectively raise funds and perform good works if they were to rely only on the services of low-waged (or no-waged) saints? It is completely implausible and this chuckle-headed "received wisdom" that you've mindlessly parroted needs to be put to bed. <br /><br />Otherwise, good post.Jon Rhttp://rowettbrewing.comnoreply@blogger.com