Thursday, March 26, 2009

Follow up to last blog.

A few more thoughts on Money= Work or Work=Money, other non-workers, or people who don't produce any wealth for the country only take it, are polititions, overpaid athletes, overpaid entertainers. Oprah Winfrey for example makes around 100 million dollars a year - or as much as two thousand five hundred average workers, but all she does is stand in front of a camera and talk. She is doing what she likes to do, for $100,000,000 a year, why should she get so much money? Some one else drives a bus around DC for $40,000 a year. Oprah would probably rather do her job for $100,000,000 than drive that bus for $100,000,000. But why should she make that much money? She would rather do what she does for $40,000 than drive the bus for $40,000. The point is that what she does is of no more use to society as a whole and maybe less use, than the bus driver or the steelmaker. Everyone does something and there does not seem to me to be any reason why one person should be paid a thousand times or more what another person is paid. In fact we seem to enjoy paying some people huge amounts of money to do very little. Tiger Woods plays golf for tens of millions of dollars a year, why? I'm sure that the steelworker who makes $40,000 a year would rather play golf for $40,000 ayear. And I'm sure Tiger Woods would rather play golf for $40,000 a year than make steel for $40,000 ayear. All these overpaid jobs only take money from the people who do useful work. OK it may be useful for Julia Roberts to make a movie to entetain us, but why should she be paid 1,000 times as much as the woman who makes shampoo for her hair? I'm sure Julia Roberts has a job that she likes more than one where she would make shampoo, why should she be paid so much to do that job? Why should she not make the same as the shampoo maker? Her job, Julia's, is doubtless more pleasant than the shampoo makers, she has a nice environment, plenty of rest, easy work (for her - it would be hard for other people, but lots of jobs would be hard for her) Why should we not do work that we are good at and make somewhere around the same money? Pumping ceptic tanks pays very little compared to playing golf or being a movie star or a basketball player, but why should that be? Every one of those movie stars and golf players and polititians and CEO's would rather be doing what they are doing than pumping septic tanks - even if every job paid the same! Would you choose to pump septic over playing golf if they both paid the same?

4 comments:

  1. We would lose a lot of higher education jobs if no one had the drive to better themselves, don't you think? If everyone made the same money than no one would start small a business , or become a rocket scientist or a doctor or anything. Why put in years of extra education and money to become someone or something great if you can make the same amount of money raking leaves or flipping burgers? Fail or succeed on your own merit. Fair and equal. It's your choice to be the most or lest you want to be. If you want to make an argument on fairness, make it on the fact that not everyone has the same opportunities to get a higher education. America was built on Capitalism , that's why we are America and not Russia or China

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  2. I didn't say/mean we should all make the same. Just that the inequities are too great. One person works hard for 8 or 10 hours a day and makes $30,000 a year, another works hard after going to school for several years and makes $50,000 a year, fine , another goes to school and works hard and makes $100,000 a year, fine or $150,000 a year fine. But something is wrong when Oprah Winfrey sits in front of a mike and makes $100,000,000 a year. (Thats $2,000,000 a week! Or $50,000 an hour!) In two hours she "earns" as much as some Doctors make in a year! Something is wrong there. There is no way she is working hard enough to be worth that much. if anyone thinks she is there is somethinking wrong with their thinker! Tiger Woods "Earns" 10 or 20 million a year playing golf! Young girls who couldn't do your job or anyone else's job make millions "singing"! Just seems to me that people should be paid closer to their worth. If we were we would all be making twice as much - except for Oprah and company who might be making $50,000 or $100,000 - still a graet deal of money for what they do. The extra $99,900,000 would go to reduce taxes on the "workers" - people who actually do work that helps the economy. Instaed of reducing the taxes on the rich I would reduce the taxes on the lower paid "workers" - thats you and me, and increase them, substantially on people who are making (not earning) millions. Lowering taxes on the rich , a la GWB, certainly didn't help! It virtually destroyed the country. Instead of 'trickling down' they kept it. And in the case of bankers, CEO's stockbrokers, financiers, politians etc stole it! From us! Do you see anyone hurting from what they did? I do - I only have to look in the mirror or at almost anyone that I meet.

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  3. That just shows you where this country puts their priority. Sports and entertainment instead of children and school and health and religion and church and humanity. Maybe everything that is wrong with this country isn't all politics ( or George Bush) but the sorry people that live in it.

    PS - I still believe that giving us our money back to spend (i.e. to put back into the economy) is a much better answer than taking it from us and spending it on bail outs and light bulbs. The economy will never get better if the people who make money can't spend it.
    The big flaw in the auto bail out is that the money is coming from the people who would buy the cars, who now can't afford to buy the cars!
    The government is a mess and bigger is not better in this case. ( which by the way is what Democrats want - Big government - Let us, your all knowing leaders tell you what to do and how to spend your money, in fact just give us your money we'll spend it for you, we know what's best) My backside they do.

    Sorry Dad - I guess I got my opinionated heart and mind from somewhere - let's see who could that be! :)

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  4. I'll think about that! Where and oh where could it be from?
    The rich people could still buy a car if they "only" made a million dollars a year instead of 10 or 20 or 40 or a 100 million! The money that they did not make would then go to US - the people who work for it. The sports figure who makes 20 million a year gets it from you and me, from the money that the companies get from selling their sponsored products. If Wheaties pays Joe Blow a million dolars to say he eats Wheaties, guess who pays the million dollars? You do, you pay $3.40 for the box instead of $2.20 a box or 99 cents a box. There are millions of people who are supported by us, by our dollars, earned by our hard work and then given to them. It could just as well be spent by us as by them. Why should Oprah Winfrey have $100,000,000 a year to spend. She'd still be rich beyond anything we could ever hope for if she made a million a year. The other 99 million could then be spent by us. That would be an extra $1,000 each for 100,000 people! It dosen't seem all that much different to me to the govt taxing us. The govt takes it in taxes and spends it for us. The sports star, Tv star, Movie star, stockbroker, CEO, whatever takes it from us and spends it for us. I'd rather have it to spend for myself. I know that the govt. has to have some to spend for us - libraries, roads, police, military, research, disabled people, sick people, schools, and a lot of other things that really are necessary, but the sports star doesn't spend what he takes from us for any of those things, so the govt still has to. So we have to give it to the govt for things that have to be done AND we have to give it to the ridiculously rich to spend how they want to - for a $50 million dollar house, 24 expensive cars, diamonds, clothes etc. Why not pay them a reasonable amount - how about 1/2 a million or a million, still way way beyond what most people could ever hope for, take the rest in taxes and reduce YOUR taxes so YOU can buy a car, clothes and some small diamonds! The money would still be spent to build the economy , but by you & me not by just a few people.

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David.