Forum Post: Finally, income equity.
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 23, 2011, 10:58 p.m. EST by 40xrule
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They say we don't have a cause? This can be our cause: http://40xrule.blogspot.com/
The 40x Rule is a grassroots policy initiative that is, at its core, a way of closing the income gap. It's based on the idea that the no one in the government makes less than 40x what it's CEO, the president, makes. Shouldn't that apply to the folks on Wall Street too? If the 1% wants to give themselves inordinately large salaries, it should boost the salaries of the 99% as well. If the economic tide is rising, shouldn't all ships rise with it?
You know, indexing wage increases in a company to executive bonuses and salaries somehow seems quite fair. If the company is doing well, who's to say whether the executive management or the workers/middle management are responsible? From what I've seen in my working life, success often happens despite the Board, not because of it (not always but it certainly does happen often enough). A good deal of upper management these days is there not by merit, but rather nepotistically. And in my experience it's a pretty common type that isn't actually capable of a single original idea, but they're very good at mouthing meaningless cliches - some of them almost seem to have invented their own form of English, like legalese but different - and often they're very good at taking credit while avoiding responsibility. Overgrown children who always got everything they wanted, handed to them. Get the wrong ones and let them learn just enough about operations to mess things up, and the company will sink like a stone, happens all the time. They're not all like this, but it's hardly uncommon.
And if the company can't afford an across-the-board increase of X percent, maybe they're not doing well enough to justify the increase.
Income disparity has such huge negative impact. But remember the uber rich make there money with capital, and pay capital gains taxes @15%. A President of a factory used to make 100 times that of the worker on the factory floor, now its 400 times.
Amen. And the president of that factory should no longer enjoy that gap the way he does today.
Interesting idea. I like it.
I have no problem with people making lots and lots of money - as long as they do so legitimately and don't subvert our democracy and disenfranchise the American voter in the process. The influence needs to go back to who the founding fathers intended - the people (some "wealth redistribution" will happen automatically as the rich and powerful are no longer able to twist the laws in their favor or buy off politicians to slant the rules in their favor).
For the sake our our children and future generations of Americans, we need to take back our democracy from the rich and powerful who are using their vast sums of money to "speak" as if they represent millions of Americans. They are twisting our laws and manipulating our policies in their favor at the expense of the average American. The $50 or $100 a normal American may give to a political campaign becomes meaningless when corporations or other special interests are handing our millions to buy political access to the decision making process. Here's my 2 cents on what we need to do:
For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Don't get distracted by the symptoms - we need to address the root cause. Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!
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