Much has been said about the wisdom of the free market system. It is said to be based on supply and demand with prices increasing as demand outpaces supply or decreasing when the opposite occurs. Salaries are also said to be based on this system with higher salaries reflecting a greater value of the respective services rendered. But is this what really happens?
What we have seen in the past 25 years appears to be a perversion of our free market system. When demand exceeds the supply of labor, companies now look to other countries to fulfill their labor needs either outsourcing the workers to less-expensive foreign workers or by importing the workers through work visas and by hiring obviously undocumented imported workers. Our most progressive senators, like the senior Senator from California, have tried to convince us that our countrymen refuse to do certain jobs that therefore must be done by foreign workers. One, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, even scoffed at the idea that anyone would pay a chicken picker $18 an hour.
Why not? That equals $36,000 a year (there are 2080 hours to a regular work year of 52 40-hour weeks). Would that really be too much to pay if that’s what it took to get the job done? The same is true of farm workers. If Americans are not willing to do the job for $6 an hour, maybe it should pay more even if that means lower profits or higher prices. We pay our police officers almost $100,000 a year because we believe that what it takes to get someone to do the job. What if we paid doctors, architects, engineers, lawyers and U.S. Senators $10 an hour. Would they work for that amount and if not would we say that they are unwilling to do their jobs so we must import undereducated foreigners to do them?
On the other side, we are told that some people must be paid bonuses, whether their company succeeds or fails in order to retain good workers. Why do some careers deserve bonuses that other professions don’t? Bankers, stock brokers, star athletes, entertainers and senior business executives need bonuses but others like nurses, social workers, teachers, clergy, government workers, police officers, firemen, soldiers, and garbage collectors can be relied upon to do their best for predetermined salaries. How did the free market system decide?
While some workers make $20,000 a year, others make twice that much a week! How is one person worth 100, 1000 or 10,000 times as much as another? Last year a hedge fund manager made almost two billion dollars equaling the combined total of what 100,000 people earned at $20,000 a year. One person’s efforts equaled that of 100,000 people?
Doctors are our most educated professionals. After four years of college, they attend four more of medical school followed by years of internship and residency. It is one of the most difficult and important careers. Doctors make on average less than $300,000 a year.
The President of the United States makes $400,000 a year but also gets free room and board, free transportation and a great pension. All told the package is worth about a million dollars a year for what is considered the hardest job in the world and one that takes many times more than 2,000 hours per year.
In contrast, a high school graduate who is a great athlete can be drafted by a professional basketball, football or baseball team, and make as much as $28 million a year to work in as many as 150 games (or as few as 14) for less than half the year. Note how many of the highest paid athletes have been found guilty of using illegal steroids to justify their high earnings - like Mark, Barry, Jason, Alex, Manny, Sammy, Jose, Roger, etc.
Meanwhile a movie star can earn $30 million for a role in one movie that takes less than six months to film.
A senior business executive with an agreeable board can get $100 million to leave after failing the company (remember Bank of America?) or $20 million to stay on to continue with the now failing company as happened recently at banks, insurance companies and brokerage houses. Note how many real estate, and stock scandals were caused by people trying to receive undeserved higher bonuses for their work product.
But a person whose fate it is to pluck chickens, pick cotton, or harvest fruits and vegetables should not deserve $36,000 to work hard eight hours a day for 250 days a year?
Who says that the free market is really free or fair?
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