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A better question: do a tiny minority of Americans deserve to take all of the productivity gains that would otherwise be distributed to the majority of American

A better question: do a tiny minority of Americans deserve to take all of the productivity gains that would otherwise be distributed to the majority of Americans as raises? Maybe the people who claim they deserve billions of dollars should exercise a bit of humility, instead, eh, and start handing out the money.

scarface74 8y ago
The statistical middle class could easily say the same about most tech people. While we may look at billionaires as “them”, people with a household income of 60K a year (the median household income), can’t dream of why people who just sit and type on a keyboard deserve six figure salaries.
- astazangasta 8y ago
  Not "easily", since the difference is one of several orders of magnitude. A person making 60K has to work three years to make as much someone making 180K. A person making 200K has to work five hundred years to make as much as someone making 100M. No one works hard enough to "deserve" that much money; this is why kings used to appeal to divine right. Nowadays the justifications are non-existent, we just pretend otherwise because we are cowards. While we're speaking of "deserving" our money, what moral framework do we use to make this calculus? I'm dubious you could identify a credible moral universe in which one person deserves hundreds of millions, while hundreds of millions work themselves to the bone and still deserve nothing.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Yes mathematically you are correct. But emotionally, it is just as out of reach for many people to make six figures as it is for most people to make a billion. When people start voting for policies that "tax the rich", the people making twice as much as they make are going to be lumped in with people making 100x as much. As far as moral argument. How can I make the "moral argument" that I deserve to make five or six times what the custodian makes for just typing on a keyboard and creating pretty architectural diagrams in Visio? Also, if both the person bringing home $5000/month and the person bringing home $15,000/month both have bills totaling $4000/month. The person bringing home $15K a month can build wealth 11 times faster.

scarface74 8y ago

The statistical middle class could easily say the same about most tech people. While we may look at billionaires as “them”, people with a household income of 60K a year (the median household income), can’t dream of why people who just sit and type on a keyboard deserve six figure salaries.

astazangasta 8y ago
Not "easily", since the difference is one of several orders of magnitude. A person making 60K has to work three years to make as much someone making 180K. A person making 200K has to work five hundred years to make as much as someone making 100M. No one works hard enough to "deserve" that much money; this is why kings used to appeal to divine right. Nowadays the justifications are non-existent, we just pretend otherwise because we are cowards. While we're speaking of "deserving" our money, what moral framework do we use to make this calculus? I'm dubious you could identify a credible moral universe in which one person deserves hundreds of millions, while hundreds of millions work themselves to the bone and still deserve nothing.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Yes mathematically you are correct. But emotionally, it is just as out of reach for many people to make six figures as it is for most people to make a billion. When people start voting for policies that "tax the rich", the people making twice as much as they make are going to be lumped in with people making 100x as much. As far as moral argument. How can I make the "moral argument" that I deserve to make five or six times what the custodian makes for just typing on a keyboard and creating pretty architectural diagrams in Visio? Also, if both the person bringing home $5000/month and the person bringing home $15,000/month both have bills totaling $4000/month. The person bringing home $15K a month can build wealth 11 times faster.