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Originally Posted by Jongpil Yun  I see this as an argument for better public schools, funded all the way through University level, not minimum wage. |
Where did you get that from? I was talked about a skilled labor force, not minimum wage.
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I'm totally unconvinced by this as well. The reason a janitor gets paid minimum wage is that anyone can do it. The reason that van der Veer gets paid $150,000,000 is that, given the scarcity of people of his managerial skills, and the plethora of business who would like someone of his managerial skills, several of whom have revenues that would make a modestly sized nation jealous, it seems perfectly reasonable.
There is nothing innate about his managerial skills that make him worth $150m. If everybody could run a company the way he could, he'd be making $10/hr. He makes 100 times as much as your average CEO. Is he a hundred times better? No, probably twice as good, if that. Once again, it is just the scarcity of the personal resources he commands that makes him worth so much. I personally don't see anything immoral about that. IMO it shouldn't be about punishing the elite, but raising up the laity.
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There is no reason
anyone should make that level of income. Period. You talk of him commanding scarce personal resources, but when you stop to think that he is making that salary on the backs of hard working Americans who need what he provides to get to work, school, the grocery store, etc, all because the oil industry fiercely lobbies to bury alternative energy sources that would force him to be competitive in the market place, then suddenly he looks less like a skilled businessman and more like a unethical predator. This is accumulation of wealth for the sake of wealth, and honestly, I find the concept of private ownership of natural resources morally repugnant. Go read up on your history, because Teddy Roosevelt handled guys like this the best way I know how: if you have the ability to negatively effect the economy of the nation, then you should be regulated. Punishing the elite? More like punishing criminal activity.