This morning, there was a story on the news about growing anger with CEO's who make a lot of money. This afternoon, I watched Braveheart....the story of the freedom of Scotland from British tyranny.
In my warped mind it all came together in a weird way into this blog post...
During the Presidential election this year, I heard a lot of my liberal leaning friends (yes, I still consider them friends) disgusted at the huge sums of money that executives make compared to the average worker. This morning, on CBS News Sunday Morning, they did an entire segment on the growing tension between the ultra wealthy and the middle or lower class folks, such as myself.
I believe that Sunday Morning is usually pretty good about presenting both sides of an argument, and I felt like they did in this segment as well. One gentlemen, spoke about how 'wrong' it was for millions of folks to be living below the poverty line, while the top 1% of wage earners were making more than ever. The answer....of course...is increase taxes on the top 1% to help those that make less.
Another gentlemen, spoke of how a total of 35% of government revenue is already derived from this top 1%. And that it would be hard to argue that they weren't 'doing their fair share'.
So, how does this tie in with William (Braveheart) Wallace? When the British finally caught William Wallace and were about to execute him, the man in charge told him that they would make his execute quick and painless if he would simply pledge his allegiance to the British crown. He had already been tortured, and the last thing he said was......FREEDOM!
Here's my point, there are some who obtain their wealth illegally, or by exploiting the system. Be sure, that any executive that is caught in some sort of illegality is going to appear night after night on your evening news. But, please, do not cast all members of the top 1% into this group. There are many very hard working honest people who make more money in a year than I'll ever see in a lifetime.
The question here, is Freedom....are those that studied hard in school, or worked hard to build a business or simply got lucky automatically bad people because they are compensated well? Is our concept of freedom such that the right to freedom is taken away if you make more money than the average bear?
Freedom is freedom....freedom is the ability to reap the rewards or consequences of our own actions and choices. Freedom is the ability to what you want regardless of how other people feel about it.
Freedom was important enough to William Wallace to die for....Freedom is important....I fear it is at risk in our country.
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2 comments:
While I agree not all kings/queens of industry are to be thrown out with the baby, few attained their state and kept it by being namby-pamby about business and moreover are not likely to start cutting their own compensation now or in the future without adequate "stimulation" to do so.
Capitalism has been given a blow to the gut with a lead pipe to be sure, and we the people have been a greedy lot and share the guilt with the CEO's if not equally so...BUT it will be a cold day in H.E.-double toothpick when capitalism is ready to die at the feet of communism. It was my prof of philosphy's old friend Karl Marx who once said, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Compensation is just the latest means (and an incorrect one IMHO) by which divisive people do, well, divide people into those 'classes' referred to by Karl baby. Technically, Marx was a large believer that those controlling the means of production (bourgeoisie) continually struggled with those who labored for a wage (the proletariat). THIS is the fundamental key to those members of the proletariat who begrudge the captains of industry their 7+ figure compensation packages. Were we all lucky enough to be fired and receive MILLIONS, there would be little print digital or otherwise dedicated to the issue, but as you point out equity of salary is not a measure of fairness the average member of the proletariat is willing to accept. Taxes paid by the corporations alone in the US of A averages 38% unless you account for all the loop holes lobbyists have forceably kept open for years. Add in what the top 1% pay in and I believe you will be surprised to find that the top 1% have probably found safe harbor for their millions off-shore and out of the light of day. Why? Because they can! You and I who struggle to pay our taxes every year and should the burden we are told we should are seldom capable of currency laundering in any form for fear of prosecution or losing our freedom. Freedom, there's that tremendous word that keeps me supporting our troops, paying my taxes and trying to keep my affairs in order. Freedom and capitalism are the dynamic duo of the current world orders. Long live democracy, freedom and capitalism, but this last must morph into a different form. Capitalism has no conscience and therefore requires just enough regulation to keep it from becoming like a kid in a candy store. We must find a way forward where capitalism will have clear, enforceable penalties when these regulations are violated. Salary caps for football, salary caps for CEO's. Who's the Wall St. league manager?
I'm not sure that it is the 'people' who are most to blame, our system (our version of capitalism) is sick.
ABC reported More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts
Whole Story
There are many other factors, but I have fundamental issues with anything which relies on exponential annual growth as a long term strategy...think about it?
Mark
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