The word "equality" has been used often lately. Women should be paid the same for doing the same job as men regardless of tenure or excellence. So a woman who has been great at her job for ten years should get as little as a man who has been there, doing the same job for 10 days.
Recently, the CEO of a very successful company, Salesforce, was asked if his company pays men more than women. He denied it but approved of an audit. The audit found that men are paid more for the same job. He immediately ordered his staff to ensure that everyone doing the same work should be paid the same. That would mean that a brand new employee should be paid as much as a tenured one. This was not considered.
One of the interesting claim for equality came for award winning economists. They coined the term "income inequality" to point out the wide gap between the rich and the poor. While it is obvious that the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor, the word "inequality" means "not equal." Does that mean we should all be economically equal? It hasn't even worked in communist countries. In China there are a billion living in poverty whereas hundreds if not thousands are very rich, even billionaires. The same is true in Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea.
The gap is exaggerated by using pretax income of the well-to-do including stocks and stock options. They do not reduce the gap by subtracting all the taxes the successful pay. The top 10% of households pay more than 45% of all taxes collected, while 47% pay no federal income taxes.
The poor are identified without including transfer payments and benefits. They don't include the EIC, free breakfast and lunch programs in public schools, food stamps, Medicaid, SSI, CHIP, etc. The average family of four living below the poverty level gets $30,000 in benefits ($50,000 in Hawaii).
Many of us heard the term and accepted it as gospel without thinking about it; who would know better than economists? They were right about the 2008 recession, weren't they? NO. But economists are very smart and we should just follow them.
While we complain that CEOs of multi billion dollar companies get as much as $10 million in salary and bonuses, we don't complain about entertainers and professional athletes who make much more for much less work. We are not heard to ask why do NFL players who play half of the season's 17 games make millions a year to do their favorite thing? We don't ask why do two or three excellent basketball players get $80 million a year to play 115 games. Why do wonderful actors like Jennifer Lawrence get $80 million a year?Even "celebrities" like the Kardashians, who display no special talent, make tens of millions each year.
We are still upset that business CEOs get much less for much more work, available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
It's another reason to think for ourselves and not follow the mainstream media or the experts. They are not always right and usually have a bias which affects their theories and reports.
Recently, the CEO of a very successful company, Salesforce, was asked if his company pays men more than women. He denied it but approved of an audit. The audit found that men are paid more for the same job. He immediately ordered his staff to ensure that everyone doing the same work should be paid the same. That would mean that a brand new employee should be paid as much as a tenured one. This was not considered.
One of the interesting claim for equality came for award winning economists. They coined the term "income inequality" to point out the wide gap between the rich and the poor. While it is obvious that the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor, the word "inequality" means "not equal." Does that mean we should all be economically equal? It hasn't even worked in communist countries. In China there are a billion living in poverty whereas hundreds if not thousands are very rich, even billionaires. The same is true in Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea.
The gap is exaggerated by using pretax income of the well-to-do including stocks and stock options. They do not reduce the gap by subtracting all the taxes the successful pay. The top 10% of households pay more than 45% of all taxes collected, while 47% pay no federal income taxes.
The poor are identified without including transfer payments and benefits. They don't include the EIC, free breakfast and lunch programs in public schools, food stamps, Medicaid, SSI, CHIP, etc. The average family of four living below the poverty level gets $30,000 in benefits ($50,000 in Hawaii).
Many of us heard the term and accepted it as gospel without thinking about it; who would know better than economists? They were right about the 2008 recession, weren't they? NO. But economists are very smart and we should just follow them.
While we complain that CEOs of multi billion dollar companies get as much as $10 million in salary and bonuses, we don't complain about entertainers and professional athletes who make much more for much less work. We are not heard to ask why do NFL players who play half of the season's 17 games make millions a year to do their favorite thing? We don't ask why do two or three excellent basketball players get $80 million a year to play 115 games. Why do wonderful actors like Jennifer Lawrence get $80 million a year?Even "celebrities" like the Kardashians, who display no special talent, make tens of millions each year.
We are still upset that business CEOs get much less for much more work, available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
It's another reason to think for ourselves and not follow the mainstream media or the experts. They are not always right and usually have a bias which affects their theories and reports.
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