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Absolutely not. In no way should an unskilled worker ever be able to elevate to a skilled position other than through becoming skilled. You're acting like run
by diminoten 8y ago
Absolutely not. In no way should an unskilled worker ever be able to elevate to a skilled position other than through becoming skilled.
You're acting like running a large business isn't a skilled position. It very much is.
A janitor at a hospital cannot become head surgeon by continuing to work as a janitor, and while a janitor is critically important to the hospital, the supply of janitors is such that the pay will never compare to that of the head of the surgical staff.
- nitrogen 8y agoWhat I am saying, in the terms of your example, is there is no viable path for most janitors, even if they had all of the necessary intelligence and ambition, to become surgeons. The typical path to surgeon might look something like this: High school -> Pre-med -> Med school -> etc. -> surgeon The path from janitor to surgeon might look like this: High school -> Married -> Janitor -> Family -> Quit job to go back to school -> bankruptcy, divorce -> janitor To return to the topic at hand, it's entirely fair for top executives (or surgeons, etc.) to be paid their value, but only if it's also possible for others to try to achieve the same value. Path dependence breaks fairness.
- diminoten 8y agoThe fairness of one act does not depend on the fairness of another act. It is not unfair to pay executives their worth because you don't pay janitors their worth. Those two things are completely unrelated.
- nitrogen 8y agoActs do not occur in a vacuum. Especially with regard to economic inequality. And why the fixation on janitors? I never said janitors should be paid like executives, only that the paths to higher paying positions need to be more widely available.
- diminoten 8y agoNeed to be? Or else compensation isn't fair? No, that's wrong. The concept that everyone needs to be able to be obscenely wealthy or else obscene wealth is inherently unfair makes sense only if you believe everyone is entitled to everything, which simply isn't true. Everyone is entitled to some things, but no one is entitled to everything.
- rue 8y agoCompensation is literally a zero-sum game.
- diminoten 8y agoNo it isn't. A CEO does not make more money because the people under him make less, the money comes from very different places.