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> Objectively, anyone making $50 million should feel it a lot and be taxed heavily. Nobody is making $50 million under their own power You’ve got it backwards.

by rayiner 8mo ago

> Objectively, anyone making $50 million should feel it a lot and be taxed heavily. Nobody is making $50 million under their own power You’ve got it backwards. The people making $50,000 are the ones who are dependent on someone else to provide all the infrastructure for their job.

SecretDreams 8mo ago
Ah yes, all the 50k makers are dependent on the very altruistic nature of the 50mil earners who all got there under their own power and without any systematic abuse, grifting, or generational wealth to get them going. Won't anyone think of these poor folks? They'll now have 49x0.099 mil less yearly income to charitably pay their indebted employees bonuses.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
abracadaniel 8mo ago
The person earning $50m a year is profiting on the labor of hundreds of thousands of people. Rent seeking on their labor and skills, relying 100,000x more on the infrastructure that made them rich. No one makes $50m a year in a vacuum, they do so by utilizing the economy they live in and rely on.
- rayiner 8mo ago
  > Rent seeking on their labor and skills Paying people for their work isn’t “rent seeking.” If I hire someone to replace my roof shingles, is that “rent seeking?”
  - abracadaniel 8mo ago
    You don’t clear $50m a year by paying people what they’re worth. The wages are unfair, by definition, if there is someone able to skim away that much at the top.
    - rayiner 8mo ago
      Your definition of “unfair” is quite peculiar. By your logic, the same salary for the same work can go from being “fair” to “unfair” depending on how many employees you have.
      - SecretDreams 8mo ago
        No, it's as simple as income ratios between the lowest and highest paid employee in a company. Above a threshold starts to be completely divorced from their respective work ethics and general intelligences. It's more just an abuse of systems that have been built up over time specifically to allow for that level of exploitation. Quoting supply and demand in labour is just insulting and indicative of someone maybe getting a bit too high on their own supply.
        rayiner 8mo ago
        > income ratios between the lowest and highest paid employee in a company What is the mathematical or economic significance of this ratio?
- mil22 8mo ago
  If that's the way you see it, you are also free to do so. Labor is a market and the laws of supply and demand are at play just like any other market. Go start a company and hire some people. This is Y Combinator's Hacker News after all. The world needs more founders.
  - cush 8mo ago
    Imagine for a second if supply and demand were actually the only forces at play for these businesses run by billionaires… - forgetting oligopolies, blatant antitrust, lobbying, the revolving door between government and the c-suites, legal tax evasion, etc. We don’t live in a fantasy world simulation on a frictionless plane where anyone can be a billionaire if they just pull up their bootstraps.
  - keybored 8mo ago
    The comment you’re responding to claims that wage labor is exploitation on the part of the employer. That they can become exploiters themselves is usually not a convincing argument to them. It’s also like telling someone with just eighty bucks to their name and debt up to their ears that they can try to win the lottery.
    - rayiner 8mo ago
      > The comment you’re responding to claims that wage labor is exploitation on the part of the employer. That’s irrational.
      - keybored 8mo ago
        And OP said “If that's the way you see it,” i.e. given the premise, “you are also free to do so.”
fc417fc802 8mo ago
All parties involved are dependent on society facilitating approximately everything.

by rayiner 8mo ago

SecretDreams 8mo ago

Ah yes, all the 50k makers are dependent on the very altruistic nature of the 50mil earners who all got there under their own power and without any systematic abuse, grifting, or generational wealth to get them going. Won't anyone think of these poor folks? They'll now have 49x0.099 mil less yearly income to charitably pay their indebted employees bonuses.

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]

abracadaniel 8mo ago

The person earning $50m a year is profiting on the labor of hundreds of thousands of people. Rent seeking on their labor and skills, relying 100,000x more on the infrastructure that made them rich. No one makes $50m a year in a vacuum, they do so by utilizing the economy they live in and rely on.

rayiner 8mo ago
> Rent seeking on their labor and skills Paying people for their work isn’t “rent seeking.” If I hire someone to replace my roof shingles, is that “rent seeking?”
- abracadaniel 8mo ago
  You don’t clear $50m a year by paying people what they’re worth. The wages are unfair, by definition, if there is someone able to skim away that much at the top.
  - rayiner 8mo ago
    Your definition of “unfair” is quite peculiar. By your logic, the same salary for the same work can go from being “fair” to “unfair” depending on how many employees you have.
    - SecretDreams 8mo ago
      No, it's as simple as income ratios between the lowest and highest paid employee in a company. Above a threshold starts to be completely divorced from their respective work ethics and general intelligences. It's more just an abuse of systems that have been built up over time specifically to allow for that level of exploitation. Quoting supply and demand in labour is just insulting and indicative of someone maybe getting a bit too high on their own supply.
      - rayiner 8mo ago
        > income ratios between the lowest and highest paid employee in a company What is the mathematical or economic significance of this ratio?
mil22 8mo ago
If that's the way you see it, you are also free to do so. Labor is a market and the laws of supply and demand are at play just like any other market. Go start a company and hire some people. This is Y Combinator's Hacker News after all. The world needs more founders.
- cush 8mo ago
  Imagine for a second if supply and demand were actually the only forces at play for these businesses run by billionaires… - forgetting oligopolies, blatant antitrust, lobbying, the revolving door between government and the c-suites, legal tax evasion, etc. We don’t live in a fantasy world simulation on a frictionless plane where anyone can be a billionaire if they just pull up their bootstraps.
- keybored 8mo ago
  The comment you’re responding to claims that wage labor is exploitation on the part of the employer. That they can become exploiters themselves is usually not a convincing argument to them. It’s also like telling someone with just eighty bucks to their name and debt up to their ears that they can try to win the lottery.
  - rayiner 8mo ago
    > The comment you’re responding to claims that wage labor is exploitation on the part of the employer. That’s irrational.
    - keybored 8mo ago
      And OP said “If that's the way you see it,” i.e. given the premise, “you are also free to do so.”

fc417fc802 8mo ago

All parties involved are dependent on society facilitating approximately everything.