It’s unbelievable to me that people hear “this is getting out of control, let’s find a better balance between rich and poor” and decide that it means “I want to take all money and redistribute it equally to everyone”. Literally no one is saying that they want everyone to be equal, but some people having obscene wealth (especially when they’ve cheated the system through tax avoidance and paying low wages) while others are scraping by makes no sense. Not only is it “not fair” – more on that in a minute – but it’s actually hurting EVERYONE. Imagine a country where you didn’t have to worry as much about crime, because everyone was happy and taken care of in terms of wages. Imagine not having to worry about which neighborhood you wandered into, because everyone’s got a decent paying job and taking care of their families. Now reflect on reality where people are out selling drugs and prostituting and robbing people to put food on the table. And then take it a step further and reflect on the fact that we have to pay the police officer, public defender, judge, prison guards, cooks, etc etc. when that person is caught AND their kids will end up on the street doing the same things to survive because they have no parents keeping them in line. In regards to being “fair”, people will tell you that “life is not fair” and call you a snowflake and cupcake and all that – cool. And then they will turn around and whine for 3 weeks about some blown call in an NFL game. Fairness is a good thing, it’s what we STRIVE FOR at home, at work, in our sports, in our schools. It’s what our entire civilization is built on – ethics, morals, standards – Christ, CIVILITY, it’s right there in the word CIVIL-IZATION. Decency, mutual respect, etc. No one is saying, “Hey, the CEO makes millions, I want millions for working the cash register!”. What people are saying is, “Hey, the CEO makes millions, I want to be able to put food on the table and afford a night out once in awhile.”
That’s
utterly
spectacularly
fantastically
reasonable.
POVERTY HURTS EVERYONE. Conservatives’ answer is, “Well, the left just wants everything for free!” – no, we want people to be paid a reasonable wage instead of 1000 or 500 or 300 times less than the CEO. We’ve become so numb to obscene salaries that when Jeff Bezos and Lebron James make flobbity gazillions every year it goes in one ear and out your mother, but those are basically LOTTERY WINNINGS EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. Who needs that much money???????? If everyone is getting paid enough to have a decent life – GREAT, AMAZING – let the CEO take the rest home. But that’s not what’s happening. Massive corporations like Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Amazon workers, for example, are on government assistance while their top people basically win the lotto every year. It’s an absolute disgrace. AND THESE COMPANIES GET TAX BREAKS TO PROVIDE PEOPLE WITH LOW PAYING JOBS WHERE THEY STILL NEED GOV’T ASSISTANCE! IT’S ABSOLUTELY ABSURD! No one is saying that everyone should make the same amount or something. But no one needs to make more than 20 times someone else in the same company. That means if the top person makes $1,000,000/year the bottom person makes $50,000. It’s time to realize that competition is only one part of someone’s motivation to participate in our society – people also want to contribute / cooperate, provide for their families, earn recognition, etc. and our economy and work force don’t need to be bloody dogfights to be productive. We need more balance and we’re going to achieve it one way or another, so people better get on board.
