[quote=pri_dk][quote=CA renter]Contrary to what the “capitalists” will tell you, we have very little choice, especially WRT basic needs.[/quote]
Utter nonsense. Are you trying to say that you don’t have a choice as to what food to buy, what clothes to wear, what car to drive, where to live, (whether to own or rent), or what entertainment we choose? [/quote]
No, oftentimes, we do NOT have a choice. I don’t get to choose my water provider, or electricity provider. The speculators have driven up commodity prices, so all vendors are affected, and I have to pay the higher prices as a result. I don’t get to choose a “speculator-free” market (you have no idea how much I would love this). Most people have to live where the jobs are, so the speculators (and I include established developers who own vast tracts of land that is not available to regular buyers — and other, private land sellers base their prices on levels that exist because of this hoarding effect) affect housing prices, as do landlords who base their rents according to what other LLs do. We can all pretend we have a choice, but the price differences between one LL and another are very small, for the most part. Just because we get to choose between A or B does not mean we get to choose what price we pay. If it’s not affordable, too bad; those who control the markets get to determine what we pay, and the “capitalists” who control money and inventory are worse than any govt entity, IMHO.
[quote=pri_dk][quote=CA renter] The questions for me are: Who does the most difficult work, and whose jobs yield the greatest benefits to society?[/quote]
You got that half right…well, almost.
It doesn’t matter how difficult the work is. In a child’s world, that’s how the system would work, but it cannot work that way in reality. The economic model you are describing is some form of socialism, but even dumber than what the Soviets attempted.
Are you sure you want to live in a world where there is an incentive to make work harder?
Answer this: If people were paid for the difficulty of their work, then who would invent the bulldozer? After all, ditch digging is harder work than driving a bulldozer, so it would pay better.
Same goes with computers, farming, and just about everything….[/quote]
People would invvent things based on need, and people would invent things that made our lives easier. Some workers have difficult (but necessary and/or useful) jobs, and some workers provide a tremendous benefit to society, even if their jobs are not quite as difficult. Both are important, and both need to be paid well.
