# Gina Rinehart suggests Australian miners are overpaid. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 6, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889 "2012-09-06T19:04:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/1 "2012-09-06T19:04:13Z")
[Story here](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/05/worlds-richest-woman-suggests-2-a-day-wages-for-australian-miners/). Some choice selections: > [@Article](#): > > “The evidence is unarguable that Australia is indeed becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export- orientated business,” she insisted, adding that “Africans want to work. Its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day.” > [@Article](#): > > Rinehart came under fire last week after she wrote a column urging those “jealous” of the wealthy to “spend less time drinking or smoking and socializing, and more time working.” > [@Reinhart](#): > > We must be realistic, not just promote class warfare, Yes, the problem with Australia is that the miners are greedy. On the other hand, it could be that Reinhart’s class is in fact winning. If she had serious proposals, she’d actually learn a little about differing purchasing power (seriously, she [studied economics at university](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Rinehart)) and the underdevelopment of African nations. Honestly, the most heinous sentence I could prescribe her would be to work for a week in an Australian mine. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/2 "2012-09-06T19:09:56Z")
I’ve mined before. It only takes like, 12 swipes of your pickaxe, and then you get 3 good sized chunks of sweet-ass ebony or moonstone ore to keep for yourself. It’s damn easy. Another time, I mined up some Redstone and was going to sell it until this green penis-monster blew me up. Hmm, guess it can be hard sometimes. But still, lazy miners. Rinehart has shown us before that Mitt Romney is a man of the people by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/3 "2012-09-06T19:30:09Z")
It’s not like she worked hard for her fortune. She got it the old fashioned way: she inherited it. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/4 "2012-09-06T20:02:08Z")
How does she not understand cost of living differs between nations and even cities? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/5 "2012-09-06T21:14:09Z")
So… She thinks that if $2/day is good enough for African miners, it should be good enough for Australian miners. Yet she also says that those who are "jealous’ of rich people should spend more time working (presumably so they themselves can get rich) How exactly are the Australian miners going to work harder to get rich if they are working for only $2/day? Should they take on a 2nd job (also at $2/day) so they can make a grand total of $4/day and forget about sleeping? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/6 "2012-09-06T21:17:45Z")
Most of the money I made in mining went to my dry-cleaning bills - having to air-pump-explode those dragons makes a huge mess. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/7 "2012-09-06T21:24:44Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Most of the money I made in mining went to my dry-cleaning bills - having to air-pump-explode those dragons makes a huge mess. He was a loser digger! ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/8 "2012-09-06T21:28:36Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Most of the money I made in mining went to my dry-cleaning bills - having to air-pump-explode those dragons makes a huge mess. Heh. Now that was a blast from the past. //// Apparently, Ms. Rinehart is using hyperbole to make some point that I can’t quite grasp. Maybe she should invest in robotics and remove the humans from the equation entirely. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/9 "2012-09-06T21:57:08Z")
> [@Article](#): > > “The evidence is unarguable that Australia is indeed becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export- orientated business,” she insisted, adding that “Africans want to work. Its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day.” So – her suggestion is that they import a bunch of people from Africa to go to Oz and mine for $2/day? Or is she suggesting shipping the mines themselves to Africa? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/10 "2012-09-06T22:35:02Z")
She played Minecraft for 15 minutes and said, “Shit, this is fun. Why are those miners always bitching about work!?” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/11 "2012-09-06T23:34:38Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > So – her suggestion is that they import a bunch of people from Africa to go to Oz and mine for $2/day? > > Or is she suggesting shipping the mines themselves to Africa? Obviously, you import a bunch of cheap labor _from_ Africa to do the work of shipping the mines _to_ Africa. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/12 "2012-09-06T23:34:51Z")
Sure. I’ll work for $2 a day. If you make my rent $10 a month and make food, gas, and electricity free. And take care of me when I’m too crippled to work. That sounds fair to me. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/13 "2012-09-06T23:46:08Z")
Just let me eat all the grubs I can catch and I’m in. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/14 "2012-09-07T00:08:01Z")
That woman is uglier than a horned toads asshole. Next to her, Roseanne Barr is Salma Hyeck. Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly cuts right to the bone. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/15 "2012-09-07T00:42:44Z")
Anyone have a link to a transcript of her full comments? The snippet of video in that article doesn’t indicate that she said what the article and others are saying she said. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/16 "2012-09-07T00:52:38Z")
makes me sad that she is an australian, she has no grasp on how real aussies live. The thing she needs to remember is that yes whilst there is a massive boom in resources in Australia today it will come to a grinding halt at some stage and then all those overpaid miners become underpaid laborers and potentially dole recipients. This boom will not last for ever and we should be ensuring that the workers share in the largess and invest it back into the economy for rainy days. She of course will argue that if she gets the extra profit then she will invest it is Australia and create jobs and also that is we pay less then the boom can continue longer. Really what % of her business costs are labour? ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/17 "2012-09-07T01:01:37Z")
[Here’s the actual video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CcxRbFiLg) (The article she wrote for [Australian Resources and Investment magazine](http://www.australianresourcesandinvestment.com.au/) requires registration.) ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/18 "2012-09-07T01:14:03Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > [Here’s the actual video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CcxRbFiLg) (The article she wrote for [Australian Resources and Investment magazine](http://www.australianresourcesandinvestment.com.au/) requires registration.) That video’s been edited. I would prefer a transcript if anyone can link to one. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/19 "2012-09-07T01:25:48Z")
That’s the video posted to the Sydney Mining Club’s actual YouTube account. AFAICT, that’s about as unedited as you’re going to get. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/20 "2012-09-07T01:31:36Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > That’s the video posted to the Sydney Mining Club’s actual YouTube account. AFAICT, that’s about as unedited as you’re going to get. Ah OK, thanks. I wasn’t sure what was up with the “cuts” (or whatever). It looked like her comments were abbreviated. So, after watching the video, I fail to see the part saying she thinks that Australian miners should work for $2 a day. Anyone making that claim in this thread wish to support their assertion? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889.md?page=2)