"Michael Legel" >:
> ...
> Who says it is I who must make the effort to learn skills and not the
> employers responsibility to provide the means of acquiring those skills?. And
> why, as a worker, should I not make a "decent wage" if I am a partner in a
> profitable operation?
> ...

These questions don't reflect either the ideology or the
actuality of liberalism and capitalism, especially in the
United States. In lib-cap, the influence of any assumed social
contract is extremely weak and is mostly brought out only when
the elites need someone to do their fighting for them.
Otherwise, you have only what you literally own or are owed
under contract. The ruling class _may_ impart various benefits,
but these are not won or owned, and may be withdrawn at any
time. Hence, although "we" are supposedly much richer now
than fifty years ago, "we" can no longer afford Welfare,
unemployment insurance, free public education, public health,
public housing, job health and safety, job training, day
care, environmental protection, and so forth. These goodies
began to be withdrawn in the 1980s -- about the same time as
it became apparent that the last major competitor of lib-cap,
Communism, was on the wane. It is true that some individual
employers may be "enlightened", but they maintain such
enlightenment as they have against the way of the world.
--

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