Your argument is flawless. But it's wasted on the Stephen Moore economists, the intellectual morons who spend their lives justifying why they have theirs and the rest have nothing. Galbreath: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
The other thing that correlates to this is the fact that our election funding is all private,instead of publicly funded like many other countries are,so those same rich fat cat SOBs can donate a small fortune to their preferred candidates,and thus the candidates actually only represent those highest bidders and cater to their will with lower taxes and more income through corporate welfare programs,whilst raising the taxes on lower income people,and limiting the help that can be applied for or received by said lower income people.
You're damned right this is unfair,and maybe getting publicly funded election campaigns is another way to level that playing field for all us citizens,not just rich folks.
The concept of “worth” as it relates to employment actually has two separate expressions.
One is that workers are not paid the full value of their labor: money is withheld from their weekly paychecks to fund the Social Security and Medicare payments they will begin to receive when they retire (do NOT allow any political, Republican or Democrat, to refer to these programs as “entitlements”; it is the workers’ OWN money, for whose management for their retirement they are not charged a penny by the federal government for the administration and investment of those funds!); employers who provide health insurance for their workers are also not bestowing gifts — they finance the costs of that insurance by withholding part of what the employees’ labor is actually worth to them. Whenever an employer discontinues health insurance for its workers and doesn’t then return what it had been withholding from their pay, they are STEALING from them, period.
The second expression relates to this
“Meanwhile, according to this same view, CEOs who rake in tens of millions and Wall Street traders who rake in hundreds of millions are simply being paid what they’re “worth” because that’s what the market has dictated.”
The fact is that, contrary to what everyone is always taught, our society doesn’t reward hard work, it rewards TALENT, real or merely perceived. In fact, many people, mostly in glamorous or high-profile professions — entertainment, sports, industry — are often handsomely compensated, usually under contract, merely to keep those ostensibly talented individuals out of the hands of the businesses’ competitors, even if the use and value of the individuals to the company of the first part are not immediately, or ever, apparent.
It all boils down to value to an entity, usually a business, versus value to SOCIETY. I like to say that if all the movie stars in the world suddenly disappeared, the world world surely be somewhat duller place, but life would go on. But if half the garbage collectors suddenly disappeared, we’d all be up t our necks in insects, vermin, ticks and plague, and civilization would come to an end.
I think an additional problem deserves comment; the consolidation of corporations. The mergers and acquisitions departments have managed to reduce competition to a point where there is no reason not to pay their CEOs so much. There are no markets forces dimming their desire for wealth. Healthy competition keeps prices down, and wages for employees up. Competition has diminished in our system creating the plutocracy we have now in the business world, and hence government since they buy it. At least with beer, over-consolidation provoked a successful microbrewery response, but that is nearly impossible to conceive in the defense industry.
Preach it, Brother Robert! No one, NO ONE, is worth $20,000,000 a year in pay. Or more. It’s an ugly myth that needs to die. No one does it on his own. And it’s almost always a “his” isn’t it? It’s way past time to unrig the system.
thank you for this and more importantly for your work on behalf of part of my chosen family.
I do not know what you mean by "worth" or "paid" or "Myth"
I have no earned income.
The USA government, has determined that I am disabled(unable to engage in substantial work), Worse, I am increasingly unable to engage in activities of daily life, (Cook, clean, ect)
I suspect that almost everybody will before they die, become unable to engage in these activities, some for a short time some for a long time.
Perhaps the case for a universal basic income needs to be made on the basis that no-one should have too little, i.e. that America should not be a "Third World country with money" - as a person in the North-West of England said to me once, and with which saying, to my surprise, a relation in New York who's a US citizen agreed.
I'm saying that it will be good for America's image, both self and abroad, if no-one within her borders have too little, that America have something similar to Britain's National Health Service, and that the power of drug companies to set the highest prices in the world be regulated in some way.
To put it simply this is class warfare. The intent is to keep the average persons pointing fingers at each other, and being distracted by the voluminous propaganda and media nonsense. The pot is boiling over. The tremendous wealth inequality begs for an immediate program of forgiveness of debts, and redistribution of the wealth, along with livable wages and governmental programs of universal health care and aid to those most in need. We all need to cut waste and halt the insatiable appetite for more nonsense stuff.
Unregulated capitalism is destroying our world. Let’s start by throwing the lobbyists out of the halls of our government. We need to stop the unending wars and reinvest that energy into making the world healthier.
A long time ago, I heard some quotes from Henry Ford II. I can't remember them verbatim, but it went something like this. Henry Ford II was asked how much he made and he stated the amount. Someone asked him, "What makes you think you are worth $XXX?" He said, "I didn't say I was worth it, I said that is how much I got." An interesting kind of honesty.
Agreed! This schemed wage & income inequality needs to cease. I am a member of the fortunate. I have social security, state pension and IRA sources for my retirement income. I believe the wealthier of us Americans should be taxed fairly and at a much higher rate than over the past 40 plus years.
Your argument is flawless. But it's wasted on the Stephen Moore economists, the intellectual morons who spend their lives justifying why they have theirs and the rest have nothing. Galbreath: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
The other thing that correlates to this is the fact that our election funding is all private,instead of publicly funded like many other countries are,so those same rich fat cat SOBs can donate a small fortune to their preferred candidates,and thus the candidates actually only represent those highest bidders and cater to their will with lower taxes and more income through corporate welfare programs,whilst raising the taxes on lower income people,and limiting the help that can be applied for or received by said lower income people.
You're damned right this is unfair,and maybe getting publicly funded election campaigns is another way to level that playing field for all us citizens,not just rich folks.
$7.50 is slavery.
The concept of “worth” as it relates to employment actually has two separate expressions.
One is that workers are not paid the full value of their labor: money is withheld from their weekly paychecks to fund the Social Security and Medicare payments they will begin to receive when they retire (do NOT allow any political, Republican or Democrat, to refer to these programs as “entitlements”; it is the workers’ OWN money, for whose management for their retirement they are not charged a penny by the federal government for the administration and investment of those funds!); employers who provide health insurance for their workers are also not bestowing gifts — they finance the costs of that insurance by withholding part of what the employees’ labor is actually worth to them. Whenever an employer discontinues health insurance for its workers and doesn’t then return what it had been withholding from their pay, they are STEALING from them, period.
The second expression relates to this
“Meanwhile, according to this same view, CEOs who rake in tens of millions and Wall Street traders who rake in hundreds of millions are simply being paid what they’re “worth” because that’s what the market has dictated.”
The fact is that, contrary to what everyone is always taught, our society doesn’t reward hard work, it rewards TALENT, real or merely perceived. In fact, many people, mostly in glamorous or high-profile professions — entertainment, sports, industry — are often handsomely compensated, usually under contract, merely to keep those ostensibly talented individuals out of the hands of the businesses’ competitors, even if the use and value of the individuals to the company of the first part are not immediately, or ever, apparent.
It all boils down to value to an entity, usually a business, versus value to SOCIETY. I like to say that if all the movie stars in the world suddenly disappeared, the world world surely be somewhat duller place, but life would go on. But if half the garbage collectors suddenly disappeared, we’d all be up t our necks in insects, vermin, ticks and plague, and civilization would come to an end.
I think an additional problem deserves comment; the consolidation of corporations. The mergers and acquisitions departments have managed to reduce competition to a point where there is no reason not to pay their CEOs so much. There are no markets forces dimming their desire for wealth. Healthy competition keeps prices down, and wages for employees up. Competition has diminished in our system creating the plutocracy we have now in the business world, and hence government since they buy it. At least with beer, over-consolidation provoked a successful microbrewery response, but that is nearly impossible to conceive in the defense industry.
Preach it, Brother Robert! No one, NO ONE, is worth $20,000,000 a year in pay. Or more. It’s an ugly myth that needs to die. No one does it on his own. And it’s almost always a “his” isn’t it? It’s way past time to unrig the system.
Professor,
thank you for this and more importantly for your work on behalf of part of my chosen family.
I do not know what you mean by "worth" or "paid" or "Myth"
I have no earned income.
The USA government, has determined that I am disabled(unable to engage in substantial work), Worse, I am increasingly unable to engage in activities of daily life, (Cook, clean, ect)
I suspect that almost everybody will before they die, become unable to engage in these activities, some for a short time some for a long time.
Does that mean that I am worthless?
Perhaps the case for a universal basic income needs to be made on the basis that no-one should have too little, i.e. that America should not be a "Third World country with money" - as a person in the North-West of England said to me once, and with which saying, to my surprise, a relation in New York who's a US citizen agreed.
I'm saying that it will be good for America's image, both self and abroad, if no-one within her borders have too little, that America have something similar to Britain's National Health Service, and that the power of drug companies to set the highest prices in the world be regulated in some way.
People are paid what they’re worth is a myth!
Just like the FPOTUS was a great President!
Some of us, who live in the real world, know better!
To put it simply this is class warfare. The intent is to keep the average persons pointing fingers at each other, and being distracted by the voluminous propaganda and media nonsense. The pot is boiling over. The tremendous wealth inequality begs for an immediate program of forgiveness of debts, and redistribution of the wealth, along with livable wages and governmental programs of universal health care and aid to those most in need. We all need to cut waste and halt the insatiable appetite for more nonsense stuff.
Unregulated capitalism is destroying our world. Let’s start by throwing the lobbyists out of the halls of our government. We need to stop the unending wars and reinvest that energy into making the world healthier.
And where would these 1%ers be without those ‘workers’?
I’m old enough to remember the claptrap spawned by our own Bedtime for Bonzo Reagan-omics
A long time ago, I heard some quotes from Henry Ford II. I can't remember them verbatim, but it went something like this. Henry Ford II was asked how much he made and he stated the amount. Someone asked him, "What makes you think you are worth $XXX?" He said, "I didn't say I was worth it, I said that is how much I got." An interesting kind of honesty.
And the Citizens United ruling allows the rich to buy lawmakers. Contrary to John Roberts, dollars are not speech, they are bribes.
If there were a "god" I'd ask him to bless you, professor Reich.
You dare to speak what no one else will in this lick-spittle society. Thank you for speaking the truth.
The barbaric wolves prey upon the civilized sheep and then tell the sheep to blame themselves for being too weak.
This is why capitalism must be relegated to the dust-bin of history. Only the wolves thrive in such a system.
Agreed! This schemed wage & income inequality needs to cease. I am a member of the fortunate. I have social security, state pension and IRA sources for my retirement income. I believe the wealthier of us Americans should be taxed fairly and at a much higher rate than over the past 40 plus years.