micro, I said nothing about your blather. And once again, you need to review your Jefferson, Madison, Franklin and Adams. Your facts are wrong. The tyranny was corporate tyranny and church tyranny. Corporations according to Jefferson must be under the dominion of Government. Government shall not be allowed to chose or sponsor religion. These are facts you avoid. But that is off-topic.
I said NOTHING about ANYBODY telling ANYBODY what the should or could earn.
I simply said history shows that certain ratios have certain consequences. Period. I.t has nothing to do with right and wrong. Certain compensation ratios result in discontent, civil unrest, and war. It just is. I was simply saying it may be in the tops best interests to keep that historical fact on their radar screen. I'm not telling anybody to do anything.
I said productivity has increased. I said the fruits of that have all gone to the top. I did not say it was right or wrong. I said it simply is. That is true. It can be measured, it has been measured, the answers are clear. That simply is. I believe that it is a natural consequence of the US system (and most systems) and it has consequences (to the US and other systems).
The most successful interval in US history IMO may well be the 40's-60s. It was a period of large government BUT SMALLER PER GDP THAN TODAY, a period of more progressive taxes, a period of greater federal tax burden but lower state tax burden, a period of higher infrastructure spending but lower defense spending, a period with a significantly different age demographic than the US currently observes, a period of significantly stronger organized labor capital, and a period of much clear demarcations between federally insured deposit organizations and capital speculation organizations.
It seems in my limite reading the free market captialism is better at allocating capital resources than any other system yet devised. This isn't to say it is somehow miraculous, the tendency for boom-bust is extreme cycles of overcapacity and resource shortage abound. Given this observation many well-intentioned folks seek greater planning through the intervention of government. By in large I think these efforts are wasteful and a bad idea (I make a crappy communist). Given the size, scope, and nature of both corporations and government, I think folks need to reasonably consider what belongs in which domain (or just go with name-calling if they prefer).
On some things all folks benefit from it if they are largely driven by a pretty tight fist of government. Federally insured deposit institutions should not have merged in top the world of speculative finance. Signed by Clinton, championed by Gramm (AMS), it was knuckelheaded. Similarly the military is likely best run by the tight fist of government.
Whether medical care should be also considered part of the commons (like military, roads, K-12 education, and senior medical care) is worthy of debate.
While government intervening in free capital markets is generally a snake-pit of inefficiency and misallocation, we today are faced with a bit of a problem. Free capital markets don't have borders. If one seeks national identity, sovereignty and, ultimately, freedom, then they need to find some way to exert influence on capital markets. I don't know the solution, but running around with a tar-brush screaming communist is not the answer.
The greatest asset to sovereignty is simply to be more valuable. To have the best-educated, best-trained, most stable work force and capital markets on the planet. Oddly, free market capitalism doesn't do a very good job at this. Free market capitalism often create unstable environments, (oddly) poorly trained and poorly organized work forces.
A Dig Space recipe for US success? Simple things, a progressive tax structure, significant federal funding of research and development and infrastructure, drastically reduced military spending, restored fire wall between deposit institutions and the rest (deposit banks should be like utilities, low yield, safe, tax-free). I think there should be an across the board zero tax on corporations. No kidding. Zero, zip, nil not a penny. Personal income and personal property should be taxed. There should be no discrimination between dividends, capital gains, wages, etc. That's stupid. A dollar is a dollar. It alters the free-flow of capital to treat things differently. It is a form of economic/social engineering that the right has always supported. For things where federal outlays indirectly support the price, there should be an excise tax. Gas. Half of the military budget is to support oil trade. Gas is cheaper than its actual cost. The cost is in taxes to send the USS Enterprise (just deployed) to the Persian Gulf. I know, you think that is some commie thingy. I don't think one commodity should enjoy essentially its own private security force while others don't or don't seem to require one.
I know, just a bunch of commie-fascist-islamo-gay-atheist talk.
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