Those on the right will hate this because this guy’s conclusions and findings run counter to conservative dogma. Those on the left (except socialist far left) may think he goes too far. Here is one, small part of it all:
Inequality leads to an excess of what [Samuel] Bowles calls “guard labor.” In a 2007 paper on the subject, he and co-author Arjun Jayadev, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, make an astonishing claim: Roughly 1 in 4 Americans is employed to keep fellow citizens in line and protect private wealth from would-be Robin Hoods.
The job descriptions of guard labor range from “imposing work discipline” — think of the corporate IT spies who keep desk jockeys from slacking off online—to enforcing laws, like the officers in the Santa Fe Police Department paddy wagon parked outside of Walmart.
The greater the inequalities in a society, the more guard labor it requires, Bowles finds. This holds true among US states, with relatively unequal states like New Mexico employing a greater share of guard labor than relatively egalitarian states like Wisconsin.
The problem, Bowles argues, is that too much guard labor sustains “illegitimate inequalities,” creating a drag on the economy. All of the people in guard labor jobs could be doing something more productive with their time — perhaps starting their own businesses or helping to reduce the US trade deficit with China.
Guard labor supports what one might call the beat-down economy. Community Action’s Porter sees it all the time.
“We have based almost everything we have done on the idea that we always need a part of our workforce that is marginalized — that we can call this group into action at any time, pay them nothing and they will do anything that needs to be done,” she says.
More discouraging, perhaps, is the statistical fact that a person born into this workforce has little chance of rising beyond it.
He also believes in what he calls “universal welfare.” RTFA to find out about it.
Now that I’ve RTFA, what can I say? Pure Genius!
If we can arrange it so that no matter what you do you get payed the same as everyone else, this place would be a paradise! Brilliant!
Actually, it’s been that “better living through redistribution” ideology that has made New Mexico the blue-state economic basket case that it is.
“Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a hero to free marketeers, admits that his way of understanding the world was wrong.”
How ignorant of economics do you have to be to confuse any member of the FED with a free marketeer?
(To be fair though, it’s not clear that comrade Bowles is being quoted there.)
WHAT CREATES A PROBLEM..
mANY THINGS.
1. a business that does not cater to the BUYER.
The buyers dont have the money to purchase the BETTER products so we end up buying CRAP.
2. MONEY has to go AROUND in a circle. Money at the top has to get to the bottom. IF you tighten the circle, you eliminate PART of the equation, and things change. the LOOP got to small to support itself. RICH were paying RICH to do the job, the LOWER PAID would do for LESS. AS well as Corps makng companies to do a job, then DISAPPEAR not paying anything(like TAXES)(but they WERE part of the CORP in the first place).. GAMES GAMES GAMES..
3. HOW disposable can you make a product and MAKE IT CHEAP? Who remembers cars lasting 20+ years? replacing METAL parts around the engine with PLASTIC(wears out faster) and its CHEAPER, saving $1 per part for 1,000,000 cars makes money. MAKING a DVD that dies in 1-2 years. Warranty?? 1 day AFTER it expires, it DIES. WHo remembers that profit margins on FOOD, was in PENNIES?? $0.10 tomato soup is NOW $0.60 per can. and it ISNT the farmers FAULT.
Making a food product that lasts 1 year rather then NEEDING to be FRESH for 1 week??
WHO here has an MP3 player thats OLDER then 3 years, and still works as an MP3 player??
4. understanding that Companies DONT PAY FOR ANYTHING. YOU pay for that advert, you pay for that CONTRIBUTION to HAITI.. YOU PAY for their electric bill, you PAY for any waste they make, thats ADDED to the cost of goods. YOU pay for that CAR running around in circles with a LOGO on it for KMART. YOU PAY for the court case of the LADY that fell down and CRACKED her head..
Some of you must be reading more into that than I see. I don’t see lifelong redistribution. It looked to me that you got a one time only payment as “seed” money. If you fail, tough, except for maybe bare minimum humanitarian aid – not enough to live on like current welfare. Sort of like the old homestead acts in the West. You got a plot of land free and kept it if you could make it productive.
If that’s the wrong interpretation, then I’m with #21. Some people having a lot more than others is the foundation of freedom. It’s called benefiting from your own ability and effort.
All you have to do is watch one episode of Shark Tank to realize most people will blow $250,000 and end up right where they started or worse. In other words somebody somewhere was the first one to eat the poison fruit so that the rest of us knew what not to eat. So yeah, life is a crap shoot that favors those who watch and listen and avoid the same pitfalls. It does not mean that the prepared always know what’s coming around the corner though.
Reading this article, I was reminded of a J P Getty quote:
“My father said: ‘You must never try to make all the money that’s in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won’t have many deals.’ ”
Just as it’s true in the world of business deals, it’s also a good idea in economies. If the business owner sucks all the value out of the business’ activity, he may derive some short-term benefit, but eventually he will suffer. His will be the “mansion in the midst of a slum” and will come to be more like a fort and his life will come to resemble a siege rather than a picnic.