Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
You still have to bring in the customers. If you aren't putting out good products, then you will lose business.
Also, the idea that everyone earning the same salary will lead to equality is pure garbage. It's not what you earn, but also what you do with the money. There are people that via generations of earning the same income would have huge amounts of capital built up, and other that would be in constant debt. This would be the cause of both inherent characteristics/behaviours, but also blind luck.
For example, if you gave everyone the same plot of land, one plot might have a massive gold deposit underneath it. One person might win the lottery. They could then reinvest that money and become a slum lord. I suppose the hypothetical also takes away investment income? In that case some people might own their own property and not have to pay rent, while others would. Or can you just earn investment income up to your income cap, in which case you'd see people not working at all, and just earning investment income, and then having as many kids as possible to expand their investment income earning potential through their family.
The more you think about, the more likely equal pay is likely to lead to total inequality, as it removes the most practical way to climb economic ladders, which is earning more money. The only fix is to also totally equalize ownership, which is not only impractical but has been proven not to work.
|
Equalizing ownership has been proven to work on a small scale. Many co-ops and communes are very effective based on that principle. It tends to fail when the tragedy of the commons overwhelms the social need to contribute. So doesn’t work on a mass scale.
A maximum income of 70k in an environment where business profit and investment income didn’t count might lead to extensive entrepreneurship and many more small companies. If 70k was the maximum you could earn as an employee but you could earn far more as an owner taking profit you would increase the benefit of business ownership and have a severe penalty for being an employee.
So it would be difficult to keep employees without giving ownership stakes in companies.