The only places where income equality exists are the same places that millions die of starvation.
Competition and winners/losers actually makes things better for everyone....even the losers. Look at how many ****ing losers we have in the US sucking on the taxpayer tit. Our poverty welfare turds live better lives than most people in the rest of the world.
While there is some legitimate concern, I think we have to be really really careful on what kind of policies we enact. We could easily find ourselves becoming a socialist country and destroy our own economy if we decide being rich is unfair. There certainly are inequalities that require attention. Such as the low wages service workers are paid (minimum wage). I don't think a person in this country who wakes up in the morning and goes to work should earn less then a living wage. To be able to at least afford a place to sleep, food, a cheap car, and the minimum lifestyle that all americans should have by having a few luxury items such as a tv, computer and a cell phone. Which to me means no one should be paid less then $12 an hour.
While it is hard to disagree with the concept, I wonder how you can derive a single "living wage". Do you and the folks pushing this really think that this rate is the same in NYC, for SF as it is in most of the country? If not, shouldn't this be a local versus federal issue?
In the 1950s and 1960s when companies earned new profits these profits were distributed more evenly between the workers and the top executives. Today most new profits go to the rich executives. The solution is to make companies that do the latter pay a higher corporate tax to encourage paying the middle class more when the economy growths.
And then you wonder why companies want to leave or invest their money elsewhere.
The richest executives can hire anyone in the world, including people not subject to our tax schemes. Do you want people to have an incentive to amass wealth in your country? Or do you want wealth accumulation to be forbidden?
If the latter, wealth will still be accumulated, just not where you live.
Are you talking about shipping jobs overseas? I believe in heavy taxes on American companies that do that.
I totally believe in rich people getting richer. It is great if a rich person can expand his wealth. However if he is doing this by not giving his workers any extra money then there is a problem. Business should benefit all groups in them not just people at the top.
By passing domestic labor laws that force higher wages and benefits for Americans only, they can give foreign workers "extra money" (by their standards) to produce the goods and services people want. This makes them richer and also makes the workers that want those jobs (which appear low paying by our standards) richer.
If your goal is to make Americans better off, you should think twice about what sorts of labor legislation and corporate taxes you think sound so obvious.
The problem is that in order to stop foreign outsourcing you have to start paying workers $3 an hour and eliminate environmental protections. That kind of wage will result in mass starvation in the US and will not be enough for tens of millions to survive on.
So there are three routes. 1. Continue the status quote and allow foreign outsourcing to hurt American wages. 2. Eliminate the minimum wage so that companies can produce super-cheap products at the expense of their worker's well-being. 3. Pass laws to discourage outsourcing. To me #3 is the best.
You're just making up garbage on the fly.
Yet another false dichotomy. Your belief in the ability to punish companies for the foreign business they do without it backfiring is excessive.
The long story short -- liberals believe protectionism works, and would accomplish their goals. This is an odd belief.
I have not heard any of your ideas. What would you do about outsourcing?
There is not much we can do to prevent it without making ourselves worse off. We don't have the ability to oppress businesses. Businesses are not our captives. We cannot punish them into doing precisely what our whims tell us they should do. Passing labor laws that force higher wages and benefits and enable unions, etc. also make it worse for us overall. We should at least stop doing the things that make things worse for ourselves by making domestic labor non-competitive.
American consumers would have to completely change their preferences if we could realistically expect stable and abundant domestic labor.
In what way will taxing companies that move production offshore hurt us? How much of an effect does outsourcing have on employment? What about wages?
In my mind outsourcing lowers prices and allows more foreign talent to boost our productivity. However since the rest of the world has so much lower wages outsourcing and globalization will result in stagnant or falling wages for US workers. Globalization puts US workers in competition with foreign workers and to compete we will have to lower wages.
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