Admit it, it would be kind of nice to be unaffected by the recent financial turmoil, wouldn't it?  Teachers may not make a ton of money but it sure is nice to know that your job will always be needed.  Believe it or not, there are tons of people out there who are seriously fearing that their jobs will not be there next week.  Once you have racked up enough seniority at your school you can rest assured that your job is not going anywhere.  The stock market can crash, they still need you.  The housing market can crash, they still need you.  Terrorist attacks, roads collapsing, floods, earthquakes,... they still need you.  Can you imagine a scenario in which they would not need teachers?  

Also, in my 13 years of teaching I have never heard of teachers having to take a "pay cut".  Some people get yanked into their bosses offices and are told to either take the pay cut or be let go.  Depending on the strength your union, many teachers actually do get raises every few years.

Also, I have never heard of another field in which when you do get a raise it's retroactive.  Whenever we get a raise (here in beautiful Santa Monica, Ca), our raise is retroactive several months.  I have no idea how that is negotiated but it is certainly appreciated.  

Another advantage that teachers have is that we know how much our bosses make.  So we can go to the district and announce "The administrators in this district are the 3rd highest paid in the state and our teachers are only the 17th highest paid!  How is that fair?"  So whenever we hear that the administrators have given themselves raises we know that a raise for us will be soon to follow.  Not many industries know how much the "higher ups" are making.

So while teachers may not rake in the dough, at least we know where we stand and will always be needed!