Capitalistic business malpratices and exploitation..CEO Salaries..

Economics Economics Questions
1

With all due respect, this is quite a long rant, but these are my frustrations with living in a Capitalistic society. Oh, and I have been on here for a little more then a year now, so I know pretty well of the ideas that is passed around Mises readings.

Now, I understand that CEO’s are responsible for a company’s profits, and that the entrepreneur is someone who sacrifices a stable job lifestyle for risking his personal savings. However, while this is true with small business’, I have no problem with CEO’s of small business. Though, if someone needs to find a job, they have no choice but to employ themselves at a crappy job where they will be exploited. My definition of exploited meaning no pay for overtime, keeping you overtime, no vacation, and taking money off of your paycheck for breaks. You can’t control when an employer decides to keep you overtime to get more work done, but its ****ing bullshit when you have school and a life to maintain as well. People at low-income jobs barely make enough to even be worth all this stress, where someone with a BA in even Communication gets to work for an above average salary and sit in the comfort of his cubicle on a computer. Jobs shouldn’t be a privilege, and if someone has to work for low income, they shouldn’t be slaving a lot more then someone with an education earning a median-above average salary. This is exploitation. You know, the only reason someone working at McDonalds is getting ****ed in the ass is because CEO’s don’t want to cut their erroneous salary so that they can continue golfing on their private island, while hiring less people so that they themselves, who don’t even do much with the Corporation they are the head of, can get higher salaries.

Do I think the honest ones, i.e. small businessmen, do so? No. In fact those types of CEO’s live it like its a lifestyle, not just a job, they DO work their asses off.

Do I think the CEOs of big businesses - who, most of the time, are not the inventors, creators, innovators, writers, or other creative minds behind the items they sell - that do things like rape the land, food supply, and health potential of 3rd world nations, pay their employees less … than a living wage, deprive the real inventors/writers/innovators/etc. of the salaries they deserve, and lay off thousands of workers so they can keep their billion-dollar salaries and pay themselves more than their “work” really deserves, are engaging in robbery? Absolutely.

To believe the 500 U.S. billionaires “deserve” to pay themselves more than they could ever use of those ill-gotten gains while millions of Americans lose their jobs and homes, die of illnesses they can’t afford to treat, or flat-out starve through no fault of their own is irresponsible. To believe they’re risking anything when the average salary isn’t enough to live “The American Way” on is ridiculous. To even pretend these people are honorable or that these asswipes who started life rich are to be pitied under any conditions is completely irrational and monopolistic.

Honestly, how could anyone disagree with any of this? And no, thats not my question. My question is, where the hell is the rationality in any of this? What would prevent this from happening in a market that is more free?

2

CEOs are not capitalists. They are not owners of capital.

3

Not my point, I’m talking about Capitalism in general.

4

Do I blame the state for making capitalism harsher than it normally would be? Yes.

/thread

5

So, you’re jealous that some guy was lucky/smart enough to start a business that earned him billions, because his product was in wide demand, while you’re working minimum wage jobs? And, because of this, you think that capitalism has failed? Do you prefer that everybody be equally as poor?

6

He seems to have a penchant for this sort of whining.

7

No you’re not, you keep saying CEO over and over.

8

Did I not just state that most CEO’s of big business’ aren’t the owners or inventors of the things they produce? Thats true with small business, but in this case the company was passed down to him, from being born into a rich family. Bill Gates was not the founder of Microsoft, he received the company after dropping out of College.

I didn’t say that Capitalism has failed, I just don’t understand why people should get kicked in the balls by the elite.

9

Freedom doesn’t mean that you never get kicked in the balls, it means that you kick the elite in the balls back.

10

What exactly is a low-income worker trying to work hard to pay off bills and for food going to have to kick a CEO who has billions of dollars to hire a lawyer and a bodyguard?

11

Yes, that is a problem with a state-based society, only the state can intervene in this conflict.

12

How about you start each day by worrying less about what others have and thinking more about how you can get what you want by offering something for which others are willing to pay?

Z.

13

I haven’t seen this solve the problem, I live in a small town where everything except for Target, Subway and Stop n Shop are local stores. Some of the local stores don’t have a lot, are not open late, are selective with their staff, or are family business’.

14

This is not a problem with capitalism.

15

Think harder then. Has someone chained you to this place that is so devoid of opportunity? How much does a bus ticket cost? How much does a ticket to Eastern Europe cost? To China? How long to save up on minimum wage for a ticket to anywhere on this planet? A year, tops? Who do you expect to do the thinking for you?

Z.

16

“Tough shit” is not very good advice or economic analysis.

17

There’s lots of reasons why someone can’t move out of their area currently. Someone can’t afford a home, what about that?

To do that they have to work a low-quality job, most of which they will be forced to work overtime with no OT pay, holidays with no time and a half, no breaks for lunch and being deducted from the next paycheck for breaks.

I have a friend who has to work at a Car Wash to support herself, she has no other choice. She goes to school, and is forced to work overtime and not get paid for it, and is sometimes late toe class for it. That sounds pretty unfair to me. I wouldn’t stand for that shit, if my employer did that to me and was making me late to class, I would say “**** you” and clock and walk out. Oh, but I can’t because I’ll get fired.

Some employers really don’t care if we have kids, family, or lives to attend to.

18

There isn’t anything in a freer economy that will prevent you from feeling like you are being exploited because your productivity is low and you are unwilling to work as hard as everybody else. If your productivity is low and others are willing to work harder, then you will find yourself unemployed. If your envy of those with skills that other people find to be extremely valuable makes you think that you have the right to steal from them, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Remember that the conveniences that you take for granted are the result of capital investment over the whole span of history. Two hundred years ago, you would be lucky to have the chance to bathe frequently. Living “the American Way” is a privilege, not a right, and insistence that everyone be paid “enough” is a hole with no bottom. “Enough” is a subjective term that is colored by the fact that you have been raised in the horn of plenty that sprung from one of the freest economies man has ever seen. The accident that you were born in such a place and not, say, in a mud hut in Africa, does not give you any extra rights, and does not entitle you to free loot.

But to get back to your question, the rational basis is this: in a system in which people are free to pursue their own interests, people will do so. Since only I am possessed of the knowledge of what will make me happy, only I can do a good job in making those choices. No central planner can possess the information to make these decisions effectively. Moreover, any and every coercive act necessarily does things that people don’t want (otherwise you would not need to coerce). This translates to malinvestment, that is, it results in capital being used for purposes that are less efficient at fulfilling people’s wants. Therefore, we seek a freer system not because it provides us with plunder, but because it provides the best overall results, with the additional perk that, as long as I don’t threaten violence myself, nobody ever points a gun at my head and tells me, with a straight face, he’s right to do so. Depending on your temperament, that can be quite a perk.

19

Please tell me if this accurately boils downs your points: Exploitation is taking place, and it should be reduced or eliminated. All jobs should provide a comfortable, living wage, with benefits, regardless of what the job entails. CEO’s of big business are evil (refer to the paragraph #4 of your post), CEO’s salaries are ill gotten. Capitalism creates and allows the existence of evil CEO’s of big business. Capitalism is the cause of exploitation.

Is this accurate?

20

Yes, thats exactly what I’m saying. %90 of the non-austrians would agree. This is exactly why most people favor Capitalism with regulation, in other words a Mixed Economy. This way people can still thrive from the benefit of a free economy, but there won’t be such a disparity of opportunities. Mises has some very good ideas, and most of austrian economics is brilliant. However, if it were ever implemented what would stop the rich from destroying the poor?

Its funny, because I believe the state shouldn’t be involved in anything else, but now I realize that people in power as well as states are equally corrupt.