There's an idea that'll get a lot of resistance. Instead of fighting over a minimum wage, why not set a maximum wage? If that sounds ridiculous to you, let me try and take away some of the ridicule...
source: YouTube
In my writings I've often made the case that there is a maximum to what one person can truly earn over a given period of time. There is a maximum to the amount of wealth one person can create. And no person is able, on his or her own, to create billions of dollars worth of wealth. Not in the real world. As an example I always fall back to the hermit on an island; if you're on your own, living on an island that has all the natural resources you could ever wish for, and work hard every day of your life, you'll end up with a wooden cabin, a small vegetable garden and maybe one or two domesticated animals. Your days would be spent entirely with gathering food and water, and there would be no vacation, or, if this is your idea of a vacation, your entire life would be that vacation. This is what one man or woman can achieve on their own. Anything more that we can achieve in our lifes is simply because we're not on our own, is because we've organized and collaborated, and accumulated knowledge and technology over many generations. In other words, everything more than that wooden cabin we own, is because of other people, be they employees, scientists now or in the past, customers who buy our products or read our ramblings.
Now, if we could divide the landmass of the planet into 7 billion islands, one for each and every one of us, maybe then we could have a shot at a true meritocracy; those who work really hard would end up with that wooden cabin, complete with vegetable garden and domesticated animals, while the slackers among us would simply die, or end up with a banana-leaf tent, never eat meat and stroll all day every day to gather some berries of coco-nuts. The ascendancy of figures like Donald Trump is living proof of the fact that we do not live in anything even resembling a meritocracy. As is the fact that those who we've come to call "front-line workers", the ones who kept on working during the pandemic and prevented the economy from coming to a screeching halt, typically earn something around the minimum wage. Those who work hardest get paid the least and those who've failed upwards in life earn the most. Elon Musk isn't a self-made billionaire; he started with the millions he inherited from his dad, hasn't invented anything himself, grew his wealth by paying his employees as little as he can get away with and fighting unionization of said employees. But hey, most people don't want to hear such blasphemy, because most people really want to believe that we do live in a meritocracy...
There are exceptions of course, but we all know that the above is true, generally speaking. Most billionaires are found within the realms of Wall Street traders, and they never produce anything of real worth; they've perfected the art of making money with money and do nothing but pushing numbers. Did you know that the largest, richest, most successful hedge funds have their computers and servers located close to the Wall Street Stock Exchange as to gain vital nano-seconds for their high-frequency trading schemes?
High-frequency trading is a type of algorithmic financial trading characterized by high speeds, high turnover rates, and high order-to-trade ratios that leverages high-frequency financial data and electronic trading tools.
source: Wikipedia
There's literally no end to how far the rigging goes in the high stakes betting game in the stock markets, and we, the people, are the eternal losers in that game because when the bubbles pop, we are the ones left holding the bag and bail out the Wall Street billionaires because they are "too big to fail" or some other lame excuse.
Creating wealth is a joint venture, it never has been and it never will be an individual endeavor. What part of the total wealth created we're individually responsible for is almost impossible to determine, but one thing is certain: Jeff Bezos doesn't work a billion times harder than his lowest paid employees. And Bill Gates isn't solely responsible for Microsoft's conquering of the world. The Great Man Theory is a ruse intended to keep the fantasy of the meritocracy alive. We all stand on the shoulders of the giants that are the generations that came before us and we all depend on each other to create the wealth that defines our daily lives. There is a maximum to what a single person can earn, can truly earn. And in order to approach anything resembling a meritocracy demands that we all are given the basic needs required to start on an equal footing; food, shelter, healthcare, education and a fair living wage. In the below linked video, Jesse Ventura makes a proposition that's music to my ears; he says that a maximum wage of 12 million dollars per year is more than reasonable, that's a million dollars per month. Anything above that should be taxed 100 percent.
If you can't live on a million per month, you can find another planet to live on. Maybe hitch a ride on one of Musk's space vehicles... And the tax-dollars go to everything everyone needs to have a fair start in the newly invented meritocracy. Let's do that... Okay, I know that will never happen during my lifetime; all I ask is that you think about it. America has seen tax rates well above 90 percent in the past, it's not a crazy idea. It's also not crazy to think that there are real limits to the amount of wealth that can be created by one person, or that almost all wealth is created collectively. Listen to Jesse and the reasonable comments by Kyle Kulinski. At least I hope you'll find them reasonable...
Jesse Ventura GOES OFF On Billionaires & Capitalism
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Early on, Ben and Jerrys had a rule that the owners could not make a certain, fairly small, multiple of whatever their lowest paid employee made. It was something like seven times. They did all right.
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That shows it can be done. And it's exactly how most worker coops operate; the highest paid only get a small multiple of the lowest paid. This way, when all workers have a say, there's no chance of developing the insane income gaps we traditionally see.
Thanks so much for the response @owasco! 😊
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