Figuring It Out…
This letter is in rebuttal to Mr. M. Chenoweth’s rebuttal to Mr. Cooper’s commentary on income inequality. Yes, Mr. C. they have to figure it out like millions before have had to do, unfortunately some never will. The opportunities for success are there for those who prepare to take advantage of them when presented. It’s called career planning. It means having a goal and the discipline to remain focused on that goal. It means going to school after high school to learn something of value in the job market.
Be one out of thousands who spends hours a day throwing a football through a tire hanging from a tree, learn how to throw a baseball 95 miles an hour, learn how to make every shot from the free throw line. Learn to do anything that people will pay the big bucks to see you do. Be advised there is only one out of many thousands will make it big in sports or entertainment.
Labor has a value determined by the marketplace. If a person’s skills are such he can throw a baseball 95 miles an hour, he has a law degree, is a registered pharmacist or a certified nuclear welder he can readily exchange his time and effort for the fair compensation Mr. C. has mentioned. Employers today can’t find enough candidates who can write a complete sentence, do fractions, figure a percentage or read a rule. New hires frequently have to be schooled in basic arithmetic and the English language before they can enroll in company job related training programs.
Contrary to Mr. C.’s opinion paying an employee more than the value of his labor is “taking from the rich” (business owner, investor, entrepreneur) and “giving” it to the poor (unskilled, unqualified employee.) The managers job is to make a profit to cover expenses and compensate investors. His mandate it to hire the most qualified individuals for the positions necessary to run his company. Industry standard and the market place will determine Mr. C.’s “fair level of compensation”. Those who don’t lose their focus, keep their goal in mind will see this fair level of compensation escalate. Employers will be bidding for the best and offer attractive compensation packages of a fair level of compensation.
That the term income inequality is even a topic of discussion is baffling. Does anyone think this is some kind of new phenomenon? Is it shocking to discover a neural surgeon has an income much greater than a city worker? If the high income is gained honestly abiding by proper rules and regulations, who shall we sanction? I believe financial success is a primary reason for working or going into business. Instead of complaining about these achievers, how about following them around and finding out how they achieved such “inequality”. Maybe he went to school fifteen years to become a doctor and has a hundred thousand dollar loan to pay off. Maybe he mortgaged everything he had and borrowed from all his relatives and friends and worked 70 or 80 hours a week to make a success of his business venture. Income inequality is here to stay.
New Zealand is as big as California with a 2012 population of 4.433 million and an unemployment of 6.2 in 2013 and selective emigration allowing only those possessing skills in demand in New Zealand. I don’t understand how any conditions in New Zealand are germaine to this discussion, but there you have it. There are no illegals in NZ; they are deported 100 percent.
The national debt is an obscenity. It has nothing to do with someone being paid the value of his labor. We are committing generational theft. People not even born yet will be paying off the trillion dollars a year we borrow. We have millions unemployed and we pay them for not working for 90 weeks. Where is this money coming from? I doubt it is coming from the poor.
As Mr. Cooper says…..figure it out. Find out what the achievers are doing and you do it. Larry Bird number 33 for the Boston Celtics in the 1960s had phenomenal peripheral vision, was big and strong, loved the game of basketball, had a sixth sense to know where the ball was and where the play was going………and practiced TEN HOURS A DAY growing up in French Lick, Indiana. He figured it out and was paid the value of his labor. In this life there are all kinds of standards to measure success, the accumulation of money is only one of them. Figure it out.
James F. King
Nothing about how most of the US manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas? I guess if you want to “succeed” in today’s economy you’ll need to either work for the government or some government contractor both of whose main mission is to steal money, property and freedom from all beings on the planet.
Let’s see, I’m a pretty fair horses ass; I wonder what I should be paid for that? Or for wondering out loud how much US money is spent on stupid wars which make rich people richer, while their income taxes are lowered – I suppose a fairy waved her magic wand and, presto!, Uncle Sammy had the needed money to pay for his Corporate America Benefit foreign wars. I wonder if USA War, Inc. is a religion, thus under separation of church and state, it’s illegal even to include it in any discussion about money and making same in USA? I hear some of Key West’s most wealthy and prominent citizens made their fortunes running and selling drugs in the 1960s 70s and 80s. I suppose that’s as good as being Larry King, Byrd – it takes a lot of hard work and smarts to make a fortune running drugs and not get caught. Perhaps people who like how New Zealand does things should move there, if they are allowed in?