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This has been a phrase that has become common since about the 2000s, and I wanted to start a mature, honest debate about the concept. I strongly believe in economic freedom both from a effectiveness standpoint and a human rights standpoint, and part of that is the acceptance of different outcomes among people in their economic lives. My contention is that if I live a middle class life why should the CEO earning 100, 1000, 1 million times more than me matter. I'm not pleased about wages for many Americans stagnating, but I don't look at it from the prospective of the other guy earning more than me. I'd rather have 1 million dollars and the guy next to me 1 billion dollars than both of us having zero.
I want to hear from people who feel income inequality is a major issue socially and philosophically. why do you feel this is something we should pay attention to?
Last edited by Shizzles; 11-19-2016 at 08:40 AM..
Reason: punctuation matters
This has been a phrase that has become common since about the 2000s, and I wanted to start a mature, honest debate about the concept. I strongly believe in economic freedom both from a effectiveness standpoint and a human rights standpoint, and part of that is the acceptance of different outcomes among people in their economic lives. My contention is that if I live a middle class life why should the CEO earning 100, 1000, 1 million times more than me matter. I'm not pleased about wages for many Americans stagnating, but I don't look at it from the prospective of the other guy earning more than me. I'd rather have 1 million dollars and the guy next to me 1 billion dollars than both of us having zero.
I want to hear from people who feel income inequality is a major issue socially and philosophically. why do you feel this is something we should pay attention to?
I have always thought that part of the concern for income inequality is jealousy. I saw this on a small scale when I was principal. Many teachers thought the principal shouldn't be paid anymore than they were. What they didn't see was that while they were typically working 35-40 hours per week for 37 weeks a year, my average work week was about 53 hours, plus I worked 47 weeks year; while they had maybe 2 nights they had to work for "nothing" per year (back to school night, for example), I was working at least 1 night a week. And, if they got sued, I was automatically part of the lawsuit.
But there's another part of income equality that I think is valid. How does an employee at Valeant Pharmaceutical International feel knowing that their CEO makes $143,000,000 a year? How does that square salary-wise or benefits-wise?
And where does your argument make sense about either people making zero?
I think what people are concerned about are the high highs versus the low lows.
This has been a phrase that has become common since about the 2000s, and I wanted to start a mature, honest debate about the concept. I strongly believe in economic freedom both from a effectiveness standpoint and a human rights standpoint, and part of that is the acceptance of different outcomes among people in their economic lives. My contention is that if I live a middle class life why should the CEO earning 100, 1000, 1 million times more than me matter. I'm not pleased about wages for many Americans stagnating, but I don't look at it from the prospective of the other guy earning more than me. I'd rather have 1 million dollars and the guy next to me 1 billion dollars than both of us having zero.
I want to hear from people who feel income inequality is a major issue socially and philosophically. why do you feel this is something we should pay attention to?
Jealousy, or you CARING about what others make is not the point. It certainly becomes clearer when you reference the company you work for - if the CEO and top management are making thousands of times what YOU make, isn't that money that could be in YOUR pocket? Or at least put back into the company to make it stronger so you're more likely to keep your job?
It gets a it more abstract when you take it more broadly to ALL people because then the assumption is that what THEY make doesn't impact you directly. But I'd say that if salaries of upper management was less due to a higher tax rate then others would benefit.
And I'm sick of hearing about people not wanting to pay taxes for stuff they don't benefit from - I have no kids but I pay plenty of property tax...I don't drive a semi but I pay taxes to keep up the interstates...blah blah - we all benefit to a greater or lesser degree as a SOCIETY. Society does not benefit when a tiny proportion makes most of the money. No one ever stopped making money because they said they didn't want to pay the taxes on it!
Jealousy, or you CARING about what others make is not the point. It certainly becomes clearer when you reference the company you work for - if the CEO and top management are making thousands of times what YOU make, isn't that money that could be in YOUR pocket? Or at least put back into the company to make it stronger so you're more likely to keep your job?
It gets a it more abstract when you take it more broadly to ALL people because then the assumption is that what THEY make doesn't impact you directly. But I'd say that if salaries of upper management was less due to a higher tax rate then others would benefit.
And I'm sick of hearing about people not wanting to pay taxes for stuff they don't benefit from - I have no kids but I pay plenty of property tax...I don't drive a semi but I pay taxes to keep up the interstates...blah blah - we all benefit to a greater or lesser degree as a SOCIETY. Society does not benefit when a tiny proportion makes most of the money. No one ever stopped making money because they said they didn't want to pay the taxes on it!
This isn't true. People do the math and will avoid earning themselves into the next tax bracket sometimes. Have you never met someone that did this or thought about, talked about it?
I have always thought that part of the concern for income inequality is jealousy. I saw this on a small scale when I was principal. Many teachers thought the principal shouldn't be paid anymore than they were. What they didn't see was that while they were typically working 35-40 hours per week for 37 weeks a year, my average work week was about 53 hours, plus I worked 47 weeks year; while they had maybe 2 nights they had to work for "nothing" per year (back to school night, for example), I was working at least 1 night a week. And, if they got sued, I was automatically part of the lawsuit.
But there's another part of income equality that I think is valid. How does an employee at Valeant Pharmaceutical International feel knowing that their CEO makes $143,000,000 a year? How does that square salary-wise or benefits-wise?
And where does your argument make sense about either people making zero?
I think what people are concerned about are the high highs versus the low lows.
The CEO doesn't own the company. He/she an employee too. Why should he / she be getting so much more than an average worker, unless they have achieved great results ? Especially when some of the decisions CEO makes are very obviously idiotic ? How many times did you read about the CEO getting huge payout year after year, just as the company their are in charge of is in a prolonged nosedive ? Riding the golden goose all the way to bankruptcy. The problem is, the major shareholders as a group stopped doing their job decades ago.
CEOs are in a more competitive job market than the rest of us. If you compete in a job market that is saturated with people fighting over a few jobs, then the wages will be depressed.
Of course there are cases of company executives doing unethical and illegal things to inflate theor pockets but that isnt what i am referring to.
CEOs are in a more competitive job market than the rest of us. If you compete in a job market that is saturated with people fighting over a few jobs, then the wages will be depressed.
Of course there are cases of company executives doing unethical and illegal things to inflate theor pockets but that isnt what i am referring to.
Except that their wages are inflated, that's the whole problem.
This isn't true. People do the math and will avoid earning themselves into the next tax bracket sometimes. Have you never met someone that did this or thought about, talked about it?
Eh....they may find another way to shelter it but they aren't actually turning down the money...that would be stupid since you're only paying a bit higher percentage on the amount over that tax bracket - you're not losing any money by earning more.
CEOs are in a more competitive job market than the rest of us. If you compete in a job market that is saturated with people fighting over a few jobs, then the wages will be depressed.
Not sure about this, every corporation has dozens of top execs fighting for the top spots. Leadership ability isn't that rare and isn't correlated to compensation.
I think compensation should be directly tied to a company's performance. Likewise, I've always felt those ratios of CEO pay versus the pay of the lowest pay flunky in the company are rather nonsensical.
Look at Steve Jobs. I'm pretty sure that Steve Jobs was compensated in one way or another far beyond the pay of an entry-level employee. But could anybody else in that company do what Steve Jobs did? Not in a million years.
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