Those who claim to want 'merit-based' income are flat out lying.
Some 20-something, douchebag working at a starter company where he rolls into work around 9 or 10 am, sends a few E-mails, goes to lunch at some $100 dollar a plate restaurant steak and lobster restaurant to schmooz people even richer than himself, goes back to 'work' for about an hour where he sits at his desk doing nothing but talking up some product he doesn't even work on then clocks out around four thirty everyday is paid $250k a yr, plus the best health insurgence-including dental, gets 3 square meals a day-free., discounts at every gym and restaurant in town, free public transportation-which he doesn't use because since he has NO expenses he just bought whatever douchebag vehicle he wanted- but he doesn't have to worry about toll roads because of the little sticker on his car that work gave him. Three weeks paid vacation, unlimited health/mental health days, which go real well with his hotel travel discounts. And best of all, an extra $4k for every new, entitled, resource-consuming, squalling little brat he brings into the world.
You think this is fine.
But some poor slob busting their ass at two or three minimum wage jobs where they have no say in their schedule and often work overtime without pay, and you also think that is fine.
Society tells you the former is more valuable than the later, against all basic reasoning and you just go with it. Who's the real 'sheeple' My God, I never thought I'd use that word after age 15 again)
Admit that 'merit- based' just means 'me and mine' you think you DESERVE more money because you think YOU'RE good people. (Or "Alpha's" or whatever dumbass MRA wording you want to use.) meanwhile THEY, people you don't like-regardless of how hard they actually work-do not deserve anything simply because they are not on your side.
It is nothing more than the age-old concept of 'us v them' been around since the caveman days. Proof that as a species humans really have not evolved much at all. Rather, most haven't.
It might help if you didn't have a chip on your shoulder about a certain type of person. Your language ("20-something douchebag...") shows your hand here.
Not everyone in that type of job just coasts in to work and is paid bank for doing nothing. Regarding start-ups, look at Jobs and Gates. Both busted their ass. It's true Jobs used a lot of people to get his visions realized, but he didn't just sit on his ass all day either. On the other hand, a lot of the people who helped Jobs realize his vision may have gone nowhere without him marshalling the troops. Steve Wozniak was happy to be a hobbyist until Jobs brought him on board. Without Steve Jobs, it's likely he would have continued slaving for Hewlett Packard and no one would know his name today.
I'm speaking as someone who has worked around both back-breaking, low paid workers and around high paid executives. I don't think those low paid, low skill jobs are particularly fair and I think we could pay those people better, nor do I think all conservatives and social darwinists are correct if they see those people as less valuable or human waste or something beneath them, but on the other hand, there's a lot of people in well paid white collar jobs who did in fact bust their assess to get there and do have to show results and prove they're not just twiddling their thumbs. Retaining people in those types of positions can be especially difficult, due to often long hours and heaps of mental stress, so it's necessary to pay them high when they actually merit that high pay by performing well and not bailing. The CEO of the company who owns my company didn't succeed by doing what you speak of. He worked around the clock and his company started out as a startup. He still works very long hours, often spending more time away from his wife and kids as he'd like to, as it involves a lot of travel.
Just food for thought. You call out one point of view for oversimplifying certain types of people, but then proceed to oversimplify another type of person in your own
rant summation of your point of view.
Work a day in product management, supply chain, project management, etc, before making the sort of generalizations you made here. None of these fields are eay. Sure, some people get into them with connections and get by not doing much work, but usually it's the case that these are very stressful, draining jobs with long hours, and often require the people to take a good chunk of the stress or work home with them. More often than not, the guys like you describe don't last long in such jobs if they are unable to show results. And regarding startups, they too fail, and the guys like you describe tend to see their startups fail when they run them the way you describe. It's also often the case with startups that the people who run them basically work 24-7. They make the connections and go through all of the meeting and greeting involved in seeking funds and getting things operating smoothly. Sometimes their "work hours" when they show up at the office during 9-5 hours are the most relaxation they see, particularly in the early stages of the startup business. And a lot of those long lunches will be spent having to schmooze with financiers and try to sell their products to potential customers. That's some exhausting shit right there.
It's often people who've never worked in white collar jobs assuming they're easy street positions. I say this as someone having worked blue collar physical labor in 110 degree, un-air conditioned warehouses and white collar jobs in air conditioned offices. Each has its own set of challenges and stresses. I do think the job I have now deserves higher pay than the manual labor jobs I held before. On the other hand, I think the manual labor jobs I held should've been better paying positions. But I do think some disparity here is logical, just not to the degree some conservative may think is fair.
To clarify, I do believe in merit-based pay, I just tend to also align with liberals and socialists in agreeing that those in low pay jobs are also worth a lot more than many conservatives think they're worth. However, I don't really agree with the attitude many of them take towards high earning white collar workers either.
I think both sides are wrong for different reasons.
I also have little love for inherited millionaires like Trump who speak as though they are self-made. But there's a lot of entrpreneurs and businesspeople who do in fact come from nothing and bust their assess. Don't lump them in with the guys like Trump. It just reveals your own classist thinking.
