Quote:
Originally Posted by stevo
Thats not at all what I'm saying, pan. You are the irrational one here. All I want to know is what you consider to be a liveable wage. What do you consider decent? How much is OK for the gov't to mandate an employer pays to his employees? How much is too much for you? Furthermore, at what level should there be a cap on personal income? When (If at all) should people be taxed 100% on what they earn, you know, to "keep it fair". No more sarcasm, just let me know what you think.
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There is no magic number, we are a product of a beast that we have let out and let go unchecked.
We opened this box where profits and greed are everything and the worker and production costs are replaceable for cheaper and cheaper.
However, in the short term, that works wonders for the CEO and upper management, works somewhat for the middle class (as products are kept affordable), and totally dismisses the lower class.
Longer term the middle class is depleted, tax burdens shift more and more to the upper class and the poor and middle classes have to find cheaper product to make their dollar go farther. The CEO's lose nothing and risk nothing by moving labor to cheaper and cheaper markets, creating more and more unemployment and lower wages and greater personal debt in the base market.
It is a cylce that is only going to end with either a huge depression, a world standard of living wage, or class warfare. (The last 2 highly and seriously doubtful to happen.... class warfare/civil unrest and demand for change is possible but not with the government climate we have today, they favor business far too much.)
So what's the answer? Attitudes and education. Shifting the focus from profit and how much the CEO and upper management can make while everyone else "fuck them", to focus on everyone as an integral part of the company.
People will be taxed 100% if we continue to decrease benefits and wages because where do you think the payment of their bills comes from? Taxes or the debt isn't paid and prices go up to make up for those losses.
At the rate we are going, only the rich will be able to pay taxes and will have to absorb a greater and greater burden.
Look in the 50's and 60's wages were decent, people could afford to live and this country set the standard in education, healthcare, living in general.... today, we are more focussed in profits and making sure the rich are set... we no longer have a united country in mind we have a division where the haves want more and more at the cost of exploiting and destroying those who are just trying to survive.
My call is when the baby boomers retire and start dieing off, we'll see a world depression and those countries we laugh at now and exploit for cheap labor come back to bite us in our asses when they want to collect the debts we have accrued because we refused to pay people enough to live on without having to go into debt.
But that's just a guess. Our nuclear missiles and military will only keep scaring them for so long. And when the poor here have nothing to lose because they have no self esteems and are working just to live with no benefits, their loyalty will be with those that promise a better life. Even if that comes from outside the country.
We have become a product of our own greed and in the end we will be as viable and as important as a Spain.
So in the end, I guess stevo I have no set answer to your questions..... Just the answer that we better be putting people ahead of greed or we are doomed.