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The companies themselves don't really have any capacity to enforce these "rules", they have to petition the government to do so. The end result is regulatory ca
by brbsix 11y ago
The companies themselves don't really have any capacity to enforce these "rules", they have to petition the government to do so. The end result is regulatory capture. How do you expect to "force companies to give more of their earnings to their employees rather than filtering it all up to the top"? More government, I guess? We've seen how this goes.
- gnaritas 11y agoAs just one example, tax reform[1], punish companies with high gaps between their highest and lowest paid workers. It's quite easy to force companies to do things, you just change the rules. When a company does better, the benefits of that productivity should not all go to the top; the employees should share in the wealth they created. Companies who share their wealth with their employees would get more favorable tax rates. Incentives matter. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-californias-bid-to-tax-ceos-who-dont-share-the-wealth/2014/04/30/fc08619c-d07e-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-cali...
- sokoloff 11y agoYes, and these incentives are likely to cause companies to use subsidiaries and contract workers, so that their employee count is lower and the median wage of those employees higher. It's not clear to me that's a win for anyone other than consulting companies, tax prep and CPA firms.
- gnaritas 11y ago> Yes, and these incentives are likely to cause companies to use subsidiaries and contract workers Only if the proposed change in rules contains such glaringly obvious loopholes; but I doubt that'll be the case, as the people trying to solve the problem have thought about it for more than 5 minutes.
- jessaustin 11y agoDo you believe that "loopholes" are real things that really exist?
- Spooky23 11y agoRemember the SUV tax rules in the late 1990s and early 2000s? I recall the taxpayer making a substantial contribution to my truck purchase.
- jessaustin 11y agoDid you know that truck manufacturers hire lobbyists who "help" legislators write the laws?
- Avshalom 11y agoYou could always dissolve the legal concept of the publicly owned corporation and only allow employee owned corporations. Thats actually less government, because right now we have a government that has to write and enforce laws for both forms of business.
- gnaritas 11y agoExactly, simple rule changes like that could radically alter society. Not that I agree or disagree, but that example does support the main point, the rules matter and can be changed.
- Avshalom 11y agoOh its almost certainly a terrible idea (at least if done that drastically) if for no other reason that massive upheavals of the status quo tend to harm the poor the most. It is just yes an example of the sort of "fundamental" of our economy that's actually just the result of some rules we made ourselves, not something inherent in capitalism or free markets. Less drastically you could make employee/consumer owned businesses dramatically more tax advantaged giving them an economic edge and then just seeing what happens. Might turn out awful but its certainly possible.
- gnaritas 11y agoYup, exactly my suggestion elsewhere in this thread.