I know what you mean. Curiously it seems to not matter how much or how little you pay as to the intelligence level of employees. We had a run of dud mechanical fitters where I previously worked, we thought that perhaps we wern't paying enough to attract decent people, so we upped it considerably, and got another dud. Just as we were trying to figure out how to get rid of him without leaving us exposed to unfair dismissal claims, he gets a job in the mining industry paying $90k! As an example of his intelligence level, the day after he finished with us (luckily) he was dumping some rubbish at the tip and lifted a broken 9 panel window over his head when the broken glass rained down over his arms and neck lacerating him badly. Couldn't start the new job for some weeks (but they started paying him anyway)