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Maybe I'm in the minority but I don't see any ethical concern with market rate CEO pay.

klyrs 4y ago
Perhaps a more generic "value alignment" would better capture both the study du jour and the Nike example.
happytoexplain 4y ago
I think there is a minority but highly poisonous ideology (in that its effect is outsize compared to how many people believe it) that essentially goes "market = ethical". There is certainly some not-unreasonable argument that market rate CEO pay is not unethical, and that version of the argument may be the one in your head. However, I believe the majority of arguments to that effect are unreasonable. I believe that the exact shape of the wealth pyramid, as produced by natural market forces, is one of the great horrors destroying the common person's feelings of satisfaction or even simple happiness - one of those things that is ignored because "personal responsibility", or other oversimplifications you might call the tonal opposite of a platitude. Historically, that pressure is eventually released horrifically. In modern times, I'm not sure what's going to happen, because we have significantly stronger walls on the pressure vessel (mostly a natural outcome, not maliciously designed). E.g. the many little distractions we'd rather take comfort in than engaging in the nightmare of revolution (entertainment, food); for others less fortunate, the all-consuming distraction of just staying above water; the simple distance between the people and the wealthy, and the layers of abstraction in their interactions with each other; the military and police. Have we engineered a perpetual-misery machine, that keeps things just perfectly in balance to avoid an explosion?
- seibelj 4y ago
  I don't care about the wealth pyramid. I care about freedom. If I have skills and a company wants to pay me $XYZ freely for my skills, the government shouldn't be able to arbitrarily cap what I can be paid. Obviously I dislike income taxes as well, but I would rather an income tax than an income-cap. The poisonous ideology - punishing success - is your own.

Perhaps a more generic "value alignment" would better capture both the study du jour and the Nike example.

I think there is a minority but highly poisonous ideology (in that its effect is outsize compared to how many people believe it) that essentially goes "market = ethical". There is certainly some not-unreasonable argument that market rate CEO pay is not unethical, and that version of the argument may be the one in your head. However, I believe the majority of arguments to that effect are unreasonable. I believe that the exact shape of the wealth pyramid, as produced by natural market forces, is one of the great horrors destroying the common person's feelings of satisfaction or even simple happiness - one of those things that is ignored because "personal responsibility", or other oversimplifications you might call the tonal opposite of a platitude. Historically, that pressure is eventually released horrifically. In modern times, I'm not sure what's going to happen, because we have significantly stronger walls on the pressure vessel (mostly a natural outcome, not maliciously designed). E.g. the many little distractions we'd rather take comfort in than engaging in the nightmare of revolution (entertainment, food); for others less fortunate, the all-consuming distraction of just staying above water; the simple distance between the people and the wealthy, and the layers of abstraction in their interactions with each other; the military and police. Have we engineered a perpetual-misery machine, that keeps things just perfectly in balance to avoid an explosion?

seibelj 4y ago
I don't care about the wealth pyramid. I care about freedom. If I have skills and a company wants to pay me $XYZ freely for my skills, the government shouldn't be able to arbitrarily cap what I can be paid. Obviously I dislike income taxes as well, but I would rather an income tax than an income-cap. The poisonous ideology - punishing success - is your own.