>These concerns seem relevant to Mark Bunster's post re. income
>differential, in
>the way he seems to 'personalize' a critical issue in our globalizing market
>society. In speaking of the way the CEOs (and others) earn way out of
>proportion
>to most rank & file folks, he asks "why it is their fault."
< "If you're not part
>of the solution, you're part of the problem." If one is making hundreds of
>thousands of dollars, is one using it all self-indulgently, or is one
>making major
>contributions to political causes that challenge the system? I think the
>"part of
>the problem" still holds, though I quite agree with Marty that our
>standards do
>not and should not require "purity."
>
>Ted
I was surprised, but shouldn't have been, with Mark's response to my
posting of the San Jose Mercury News about income differential between
workers and CEOs. People interviewed for the article cheered how much CEO's
were making -- they earned it!
Earned it? The system earned it, they profited, while others were un-profited.
I posted the entire article with the facts, how CEOs pay continues to
increase while workers make less or continue to make the same. Mark accused
me of comparing apples and oranges ... what should we compare pay to? The
article compares CEO pay to other countries and to the workers in this
country.
That people aren't up in arms with the distribution of income is beyond me.
The janitors fight tooth and nail to make $10 an hour while CEOs make $50
million or $25 million. Our new post-Reagan "new consciousness"? Or a
justification of a system that gives some 400 times more pay than others,
often for less physical or mental work, and then has those making less
justifying their lack of pay... (Last time I looked this was called false
consciousness.)
I didn't intend to attack individuals: we all participate in the system
because we live here, we're part of it, and we eat too. Does that mean we
justify the disparity and pat ourselves on the back? No, the question is
how to change such an injust system.
Past societies drug the wealthiest out in the streets and got rid of them
every few generations, but we're supposedly more civilized than that. If
this continues, who knows whether this will happen in the future? The
supposed left isn't doing anything to even point out the facts ... they
mostly come from the business pages. Where's our voice?
best, Don Monkerud
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