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No, actually they would have been just as well off as their colleagues, because their colleagues are not full time teachers, their colleagues are people who aren't capable of being teachers. That's what separates this from the various 'tap into the zeitgeist somehow and become an overnight star' lottery professions - those things are lotteries because there is no formal process for joining them. These not-teachers are getting a substantial pay day specifically because they failed the formal process to become a teacher. It doesn't matter how hard they worked at it, it exceeds their capabilities! It's like suing the Olympics for not giving me gold in sprints because I trained every day - which is to say the kind of joke most people wouldn't make because it breaks their ability to suspend disbelief.
Those are both gambles that millions of people made during the 20th century. But the point I think ebrso was making was that working is supposed to be, and has been claimed to be for an exceptionally long time, more lucrative than not working.
I was answering OP's question about whether the existence of cases like these make it that it is now irrational to not try and game the system - my comment was not making any moral judgements on the people in the class action and what they are/are not entitled to.
From that perspective it does make sense to compare them, as you have, to part-time teachers - as both have the same merit.
And my point is that it still is more lucrative to work than to be unemployed.
Here, there weren't any "non-workers", since the plaintiffs in the class action were just incapable of passing the test - but they had the same outcome as a hypothetical teacher who can pass these exams but deliberately flunks to try and file a discrimination settlement.
And this time around, it happens that the competent (Black and Hispanic) teachers would have actually have been better off if they'd flunked the test.
Of course all of these things are gambles, but I chose them as examples because I believe that they are all bad gambles, that they have negative expected utility. I think a rational actor would choose to pass the test (if they have the ability to do so) instead of taking this wild chance.
But to address the separate point you made - that it is unmeritocratic and unfair that the courts and politicians allowed such a situation to occur, in which the general public was forced to subsidise incompetence - I fully agree.
Though I think the behaviour of the plaintiffs was understandable, and I can't honestly say I would have done any differently in their shoes (The only downside of filing such a suit is the massive damage to your reputation caused by being seen as a welfare queen begging for handouts. But a demoted part-time substitute public school teacher has very little to begin with, and doesn't suffer much from losing it)
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