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The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

theatlantic.com

81–87 of 87 posts

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#81

From the comments: "The focus and concern shouldn't be how much the top 1% are making, it should be how much the 99% are making, especially the bottom 50%. I dont really care how much money Bill Gates and Donald Trump are making. Their income has absolutely no effect at all on my income, what I'm most concerned about is how much money I'm making. The economy is not a zero sum game, where if the rich make a trillion m…

> The economy is not a zero sum game, where if the rich make a trillion more it comes out of the pockets of the workers. This notion is childish and wrong.

I'm genuinely curious about this point. Every dollar in pay I cut from my worker's salary is a dollar more in my company's pocket, isn't it?

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#82
post #3

Yup. Using humans to get stuff done isn't our only option anymore, so a difference between the stock market and labor market isn't surprising. I live in a liberal area and I'm facebook friends with a lot of Burners (people who have gone to burning man). I see a ton of image macros and posts where people are implying that it's a moral wrong that businesses are doing well while we have high unemployment. :-/ For me, on…

What is morally wrong is the idea that everyone should have a job in a society where it's so obviously unnecessary for everyone to work, and where the level of productivity is in fact detrimental to the people and their environment in the long term. What I'm saying is that we should get rid of the idea of not having a wage job at all as inherently less respectable than working with anything and introduce a guaranteed…

> and introduce a guaranteed minimum income.

Nixon tried this in 70's. It came surprising close to passing on the grounds that it would be far more efficient and lead to better outcomes than the patch work system of social programs we currently have.

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#83
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me, once I understood the (technological, economic) reasons for the difference it became less of a moral issue and more of a practical issue. keywords: "For me" Everyone seems to lose their empathy for the poor and unfortunate once they become successful themselves. But I bet before you landed your sweet coffeescript gig, that you were pretty empathetic. It's not a practical issue. It's purely a moral one. We a…

The system rewards luck and pedigree more than it rewards effort and hard work. What evidence do you have for this?

Empirical evidence is not required to prove what is common sense.

Lets say I was born in Darfur. Bad luck, bad pedigree.

Lets say I was born in Afghanistan. Bad luck, bad pedigree.

... do I need to continue

BTW, pedigree is not the same as "breed" -- it is the totality of everything, including what family you come from, who your parents are, and all that. Society judges you heavily, just based on that, starting with your first day at school.

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#84
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system rewards luck and pedigree more than it rewards effort and hard work. What evidence do you have for this?

Empirical evidence is not required to prove what is common sense. Lets say I was born in Darfur. Bad luck, bad pedigree. Lets say I was born in Afghanistan. Bad luck, bad pedigree. ... do I need to continue BTW, pedigree is not the same as "breed" -- it is the totality of everything, including what family you come from, who your parents are, and all that. Society judges you heavily, just based on that, starting with…

Worldwide I agree with you - but empirical data is easy to come by (as your examples demonstrate). Inside the us I'm far less convinced.

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#85
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Empirical evidence is not required to prove what is common sense. Lets say I was born in Darfur. Bad luck, bad pedigree. Lets say I was born in Afghanistan. Bad luck, bad pedigree. ... do I need to continue BTW, pedigree is not the same as "breed" -- it is the totality of everything, including what family you come from, who your parents are, and all that. Society judges you heavily, just based on that, starting with…

Worldwide I agree with you - but empirical data is easy to come by (as your examples demonstrate). Inside the us I'm far less convinced.

Inside the US there is a rough equality for opportunity to become "middle class" which is constantly shrinking.

To become an elite upper class person, family helps a lot.

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#86

Couple things here. First, corporate profits are aberrantly high for a number of reasons, none of which are likely to be permanent. John Hussman, an analyst whom I respect deeply, has a good discussion of this from the perspective of stock valuations, but the basic point is relevant here. [ http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc130408.htm ] Second, while I agree that this is "the story" in a purely journalistic sense, i…

Right now there's a strong incentive to be born in to the right family.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/09/22/are-we-entering-the-a...

Re: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market

#87
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me, once I understood the (technological, economic) reasons for the difference it became less of a moral issue and more of a practical issue. keywords: "For me" Everyone seems to lose their empathy for the poor and unfortunate once they become successful themselves. But I bet before you landed your sweet coffeescript gig, that you were pretty empathetic. It's not a practical issue. It's purely a moral one. We a…

The system rewards luck and pedigree more than it rewards effort and hard work. What evidence do you have for this?

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/09/22/are-we-entering-the-a...
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