# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/21 "2012-09-07T01:34:26Z")
From what I have heard, not only did she inherit her money, she screwed her own children out of their share of the inheritance. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/22 "2012-09-07T01:42:06Z")
She can’t take it with her. ---
**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, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/23 "2012-09-07T01:42:42Z")
Not only does she not say that Australian miners should make $2 a day, I don’t think there’s anything in there suggesting that Australian miners are overpaid. There’s a difference between “labor costs are too high” and “workers are paid too much.” ---
**Author:** ![SweetLucy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@SweetLucy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLucy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/24 "2012-09-07T02:13:07Z")
She sounds like an American teabagger ---
**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 7, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/25 "2012-09-07T02:17:32Z")
> [@SweetLucy](#): > > She sounds like an American teabagger The stupidity is there, but not quite enough froth. ---
**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, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/26 "2012-09-07T03:01:03Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > She can’t take it with her. Well, then, she just won’t go! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/27 "2012-09-07T03:06:50Z")
Really? Teabaggers, I mean the rank and file, aren’t known for having money, and the invective is different. She is a run of the mill plutocrat. I don’t know if she is speaking out of malice, or if she is one of those people who literally doesn’t carry a wallet and has people pay for her. **njtt** : 3/4 children are on the outs with her. The youngest is in her early/mid 20s and doesn’t seem to be fighting, but I don’t know if she is the sole heir. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/28 "2012-09-07T03:53:03Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Not only does she not say that Australian miners should make $2 a day No-one said she did say that. > [@](#): > > I don’t think there’s anything in there suggesting that Australian miners are overpaid. Then what was her point in bringing up African pay rates? > [@](#): > > There’s a difference between “labor costs are too high” and “workers are paid too much.” In that there are costs associated with labour that aren’t wages, yes. But are you seriously claiming that when she says > [@](#): > > Africans want to work. Its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day. that she is not directly implying that Australian miners ought to accept lower wages than they currently get? Those extra, non-labour, costs are a/ relatively minor and b/ only marginally connected with pay rates. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/29 "2012-09-07T05:08:20Z")
I think that she should stick with her old job of being insulted by Groucho Marx. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/30 "2012-09-07T10:40:03Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > Maybe she should invest in robotics and remove the humans from the equation entirely. You jest (presumably), but that was seriously proposed by [Oscar Wilde](http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/wilde-oscar/soul-man/index.htm). Unfortunately, technology hasn’t advanced to that point yet. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/31 "2012-09-07T14:43:26Z")
It looks to me like BBC camera operators are overpaid. What’s with the terrible focus? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/32 "2012-09-07T14:49:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I think that she should stick with her old job of being insulted by Groucho Marx. I just want to say that you made my day. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/33 "2012-09-07T15:26:57Z")
Miners in West Australia are paid a hell of a lot. Overpaid? I have no idea- I wouldn’t want their job. Whether what she said is out of context (and it probably is) is a pale comparison compared to the soap opera of the whole Gina Reinhart story. her father (Lang) made all the money and ended up marrying some- um, lady- from the Philipines. Naturally, Gina was not all that pleased about this and after her fathers death spent a huge amount of money trying to reduce the amount of money the lovely Rose (the Filipino lady- are you keeping track?) was left. She also tried to have the Court say that Rose had something to do with her fathers death. After many years all this was dismissed so Gina was left to fight with her children, boards of media organisations. Although she doesn’t have seem to have won any she has become the richest woman on the planet so I guess she is no dunce. Rose has also made a name for herself for spending money on garish mansions and throwing out a husband or two. It really is amusing- as the saying goes- “like masturbating with a cheese grater”. And I doubt whether either Rose or Gina gives a rats arse what we think. Although Gina does have sufficient grunt to make our politicians take note. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/34 "2012-09-07T15:44:34Z")
She’s sorta right, in a way. Australia just went through a mining boom spurred by China’s growth. Now that China is spiraling towards recession, mining exports will decline, and those companies aren’t going to maintain a high headcount at inflated wages. But if your labor costs truly don’t make sense given the amount of business you’re doing, the proper way to address that is through layoffs and furloughs, not sniffing about how African miners work for a pittance (and by the way, 34 miners in South Africa were recently killed by police during a strike, so I’m not sure they’re exactly satisfied with the wage structure there). ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/35 "2012-09-07T15:49:28Z")
One thing I guess I should mention is that in the larger operations, the workers are on a fly in/ fly out basis. Spend time at the mine site and come back to Perth or wherever. They are not the miners of the coal pits in the industrial revolution. It is still a dangerous job and I think they deserve what they can get. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/36 "2012-09-07T19:54:48Z")
Next up: she’ll ask what happened to the company stores. I mean, those companies were so good to their employees, they even had their own special stores! How about that! ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/37 "2012-09-08T02:21:17Z")
[Hungry Beast](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fSXHxOLkqY) takes to Vagina Brineheart… ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/38 "2012-09-08T14:57:37Z")
Here’s an analogy. Imagine if Gillard had complained about fat lazy CEOs and how Zimbabwe had several more billionaires than Australia. Her statements may be literally true (if an adequate scale could be constructed for laziness), yet they have no relationship with each other and certainly should not be the basis of policy (and they’d demonstrate her own ignorance, too). ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/39 "2012-09-08T16:30:38Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Just let me eat all the grubs I can catch and I’m in. Don’t worry - they’ll toss another grub on the barbie for ya. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889/40 "2012-09-08T16:38:57Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > No-one said she did say that. Post #5: > [@](#): > > So… She thinks that if $2/day is good enough for African miners, it should be good enough for Australian miners. I don’t have a dingo in this fight, but seems to me you have to recognize if you’ve got international competition or not. If African mining operations are causing difficult times for Australian mining operations, and if a significant amount of said problems are related to labor costs, then Australian miners are probably paid too much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gina-rinehart-suggests-australian-miners-are-overpaid/633889.md?page=3)