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I don't think "fixing income inequality" needs to mean that everyone is paid the same amount. It's reasonable to believe that <insert billionaire here> isn't a

I don't think "fixing income inequality" needs to mean that everyone is paid the same amount. It's reasonable to believe that <insert billionaire here> isn't a million times more productive than their median employee, and that factors other than pure merit allowed them to amass that much wealth. Even if you did think that they were that meritorious, you could still make an argument that "fairness" should involve balancing both merit and utility (in this case referring to the diminishing marginal utility of money).

tomschlick 7y ago
> It's reasonable to believe that <insert billionaire here> isn't a million times more productive than their median employee If a normal employee at say walmart brings in $100 worth of value a day to the company, and the CEO executes a few big multi-million dollar deals that month, then the CEO in fact would be significantly more productive (in terms of capital to the company) than the average employee. > and that factors other than pure merit allowed them to amass that much wealth. Yes like taking the risk of starting such a business to employ others and putting down the capital which might be lost. I also don't know who you think would enforce some kind of "fairness" limit on how much money someone makes. The government doing so would likely be ruled unconstitutional and wouldn't likely ever be passed in the first place through congress.
- Konnstann 7y ago
  Just to play devil's advocate, if you put a normal Walmart employee in a CEO position, or maybe just an "executive" position with decision-making authority, how far off would they be in terms of productivity from someone normally in that position? Say the employee was 1/10th as productive as that executive, that would still be thousands of times more productive than that same employee at their regular minimum wage job.
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  > If a normal employee at say walmart brings in $100 worth of value a day to the company If all the normal employees quit and Walmart can't replace them, how much money does Walmart lose? Perhaps we should calculate value to the company based on that sort of reasoning.

tomschlick 7y ago

> It's reasonable to believe that <insert billionaire here> isn't a million times more productive than their median employee If a normal employee at say walmart brings in $100 worth of value a day to the company, and the CEO executes a few big multi-million dollar deals that month, then the CEO in fact would be significantly more productive (in terms of capital to the company) than the average employee. > and that factors other than pure merit allowed them to amass that much wealth. Yes like taking the risk of starting such a business to employ others and putting down the capital which might be lost. I also don't know who you think would enforce some kind of "fairness" limit on how much money someone makes. The government doing so would likely be ruled unconstitutional and wouldn't likely ever be passed in the first place through congress.

Konnstann 7y ago
Just to play devil's advocate, if you put a normal Walmart employee in a CEO position, or maybe just an "executive" position with decision-making authority, how far off would they be in terms of productivity from someone normally in that position? Say the employee was 1/10th as productive as that executive, that would still be thousands of times more productive than that same employee at their regular minimum wage job.
shadowgovt 7y ago
> If a normal employee at say walmart brings in $100 worth of value a day to the company If all the normal employees quit and Walmart can't replace them, how much money does Walmart lose? Perhaps we should calculate value to the company based on that sort of reasoning.