aatombomb

Is income really a measure of productivity? Of course not. Consider your own profession. Do your colleagues who demonstrate the greatest skill unfailingly earn the most money, and those with the most meager skill the least money? I certainly cannot say that of my profession. Nor do I know anybody who would say that of his own line of work. Most of us perceive a world with its share of overpaid incompetents and underpaid talents. Which is to say, we rightly reject the notion of the market as the perfect gauge of social value.

Now assume that this principle were to apply not only within a profession—that a dentist earning $200,000 a year must be contributing exactly twice as much to society as a dentist earning $100,000 a year—but also between professions. Then you are left with the assertion that Donald Trump contributes more to society than a thousand teachers, nurses, or police officers. It is Wall Street, of course, that offers the ultimate rebuttal of the assumption that the market determines social value. An enormous proportion of upper-income growth over the last twenty-five years accrued to an industry that created massive negative social value—enriching itself through the creation of a massive bubble, the deflation of which has brought about worldwide suffering.

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Jonathan Chait in the New Republic. (via pilgrimsoul) (via historicupstart)

I can’t tell if this explains or makes more confounding the fact that the loudest defenders of the mega-wealthy “meritocratic” class are a bunch of white trash boobs who think the insurance industry is better at providing health care than the federal government. Although “think” might be the wrong word here.

Posted September 17, 2009 at 12:43am || home