Inequality and Wealth

Is There a Remedy?

Vasilios Gardiakos

Not Everybody can be rich. Not every one in the world can have enough money to retire and never to work again. If this would be the case then who would work? So there will always be the rich and the not-rich.

My concern here is for the hard working people that are under-paid. Why should a tomato picker get $30 per day while an auto worker gets $30 per hour and executive $30 per minute? We the citizens of the world must find a way to improve the pay scale of the tomato picker. Though he is generally uneducated he is performing back breaking work and should be properly compensated in relation to other workers.

Supply and demand may be a good law to price goods but it’s a terrible way determine wages of the hard working poor labor force. It is terrible, because it is not fair and as humans we have a sense of fairness and what is right and what is wrong. The law that the supply and demand determining wages must be re-thought. The proof that this is a bad idea is that there are billions of workers that are under paid. Why should a migrant worker work all day in the field and only make $30. Is it fair when others working less hard get paid more and often much more? Something should be done to encourage compensation for the physical labor and the productively of an individual laborer.

Long ago the law of the jungle was that the strongest physically ruled. We did away with the law of the jungle where the physically strong rule and replaced it with the smart and aggressive to govern. Slowly the law changed to the most cunning and greedy. The rule by the strongest was a bad idea and so is rule by the cunning and greedy.

It is our playground that allows the rich to accumulate wealth. It is our playground that has been molded by the powerful in such a fashion that the poor laborers remain underpaid. Lets face it, this is our playground and we are entitled to make the rules which must be followed. Not some guy in headquarters or the wealthy. Some genius should figure out what it will take to raise the wages of the untrained hard working laborers. It would be great if this could be done without reducing the income of the rich but if this be the case it still is a important goal. Lets level the playground so more if not all can reap the benefits of prosperity. This is not a threat to the rich. I do not propose to strip the living wealthy of their wealth. Their wealth is partially due to their ingenuity and partially to the system that pays the politically weak laborers less for their resources. The rich became wealthy because of how we designed the playground. The rules we set allowed for anyone to become rich.

Lets be honest, everyone cannot be rich. All of us cannot have a chauffeur, maids and private secretaries. It is obvious at least for the foreseeable future that chauffeurs, maids and private secretaries cannot have a chauffeur, maid and a private secretary. This is proof that we all cannot have the benefits of the wealthy.

The plight of my fellow men and woman needs to be addressed. Now is the time. If there is a better way lets find it. I am not looking for a perfect system but a better one that will be more just. I do not buy the argument that the rich do not have enough money an that the poor have more than enough. Yes, there are people that believe this to be true. Some believe that the poor want to remain poor. They should have their heads and hearts examined.

Yeah, the rich are generally smarter than the average lot. But why should this attribute earn them wealth beyond their contribution? Though business savvy should be rewarded it should not be at the perpetual expense of the working masses. Hard work coupled with accomplishment should be well rewarded as a reward in it self and to encourage others to follow.

The wealth of the rich would be fine with me if it were not for the billions of impoverished people. Not that I support a law mandating equal wealth or equal pay but the means for the underpaid workers to improve their wages and standard of living. It's only right!

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