Do you believe that the premise of income equality is an illogical, even ludicro

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   gmwilliamsposted 8 years ago

   Do you believe that the premise of income equality is an illogical, even ludicrous one, given
   
   that some jobs require more education, skills, and intensive training while others jobs require little or no education, training, and/or skills? There are some people who argue that some are overpaid while some are underpaid in their jobs/careers.  However, there is a correlation between levels of education, training, and/or skills to types of jobs/careers and commensurate pay.
   
   

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   M. T. Dremerposted 8 years ago

   It's my understanding that the issue of income inequality comes from stagnating wages for a specific portion of the population. In the past, all wages for all skill sets, would rise (periodically) to meet inflation. Somewhere along the line that stopped for those in middle and low income brackets. Their wages stayed the same, despite continued inflation.
   
   The high income brackets, however, continued to see wage increases, sometimes well above what they would need to account for inflation. Obviously successful people shouldn't be punished for being successful, but when a CEO gets a huge bonus, and none of their other employees do, it creates the kind of negative image that spurs a debate on income inequality.
   
   This is also fueled by the decrease in the value of education. More prospective employees have bachelor's degrees than ever before. Which means highly educated people are fighting it out for low paying jobs. And employers have no choice but to ask for higher and higher levels of education in order to thin the hiring pool.
   
   So it's no longer true that a highly skilled person will get paid what they're worth. Rather, the only way to avoid the low and middle income brackets is to be born into a rich family. Obviously it's still possible for anyone to become rich, but the pathways have narrowed and the middle earners are forced to work paycheck to paycheck.

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   Express10posted 8 years ago

   I agree that it's illogical. It irritates me when I see and hear people say so and so earns too much money. Never mind the fact that quite often "so and so" may have created products, services, entertainment, life changing things that are in demand and that people are paying to have/use/see. Those screaming about income inequality can often be seen through like a sheet of glass, having erroneously decided that they can never earn more or earn in abundance and so they choose to attack others who have financial abundance instead.
   
   Many careers and industries require more education and experience but there is still a huge number of people in this country who have never attended college and a shocking number who have never even earned a high school diploma. This often has to do with one's personal choices and sometimes unfortunate circumstances beyond one's control. While I do feel that a person who works at least 40 hours weekly should not live in poverty, I also feel that every individual needs to make sure their education, skills, experience and talents are always kept current if they want financial abundance.
   
   The entitlement mindset has to stop whether it comes from the fast food worker with a GED and four kids out of wedlock or whether it comes from a multimillionaire CEO seeking a financial windfall from Uncle Sam and everyone in between.

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   feenixposted 8 years ago

   Wages being adjusted to keep up with inflation? That is a very nice idea but in all my 50 years of being a member of the labor market, I have never seen that happen.
   
   In order for workers to earn enough to keep up with inflation or rising costs-of-living, they have to take it upon themselves to earn more money -- whether it's through working two jobs at the same time, landing a higher-paying job, or by going out on their own and making a whole truckload of money.
   
   That's the American way. And by following each of the above options at various points in my life, I always earned enough keep up with inflation or rising costs-of-living.

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      Express10posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Amen Feenix!

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      feenixposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you very much, Express.

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