Years ago an American friend who was married to an Argentinian woman and had lived there for a number of years told me this story. He said that Argentinians would say, “Well if we were big as the US, we could could have as great an economy as the US.” My friend would always say, “Well, why don’t you try to be as great as Sweden?” Actually Sweden has a government sometimes described as Democratic Socialism. This is the form that Bernie Sanders says he favors, not the dictatorial Soviet variety. Swedes and Danes seem to have a national consensus that they don’t like to see people EXTREMELY rich, while others sleep on the streets. In the US in the 1950s and 60s, the disparity between workers wages and CEO wages was about 40 to 1. Now it is more like 400 or even 1,000 to 1. Would we be better off with ratios like in the 1950s?
No, we wouldn’t. There is no role for the gov’t to play Handicapper General, and it’s no one’s business how much someone makes unless they’re gubmint stooges, in which case, I and every other taxpayer has every right to know their wages.
People sleep in the streets by choice, because they can’t be bothered with filling out one Monthly Reporting Form. Here in GR — a city of about a quarter million people — a few tenths of a percent (mostly male) are on food assistance (EBT cards are called “Bridge Cards” here), which is much easier to qualify for, but there is a load of food available basically for free at various well-known and frequented places in the downtown area known as “Heartside”.
Argentina has always always always gone the way of Sweden, which is exactly why they don’t have an economy like the US’.
Yes.
I am generally skeptical of these 400 to 1 claims. Often consideration in executive pay are incentives and stock options, not just a straight salary. If the stock goes way up, then yes, that can result in a big pay day. I do not spend much time worrying that some executive at some company may be getting paid too much anymore than I worry that certain basketball players or reality TV actors are overpaid. I have little use for Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, or Kim Kardashian or Kanye West. But if they make a lot of money, I don’t begrudge them for that. Do we really want to go back to all of the policies of the 1950s, including 90% top tax rates? I certainly hope not. I am skeptical of ALL policies which raise taxes and increase the size the size of government. These policies end up hurting the little guy the hardest. The rich will always find ways to protect their assets.