[extropy-chat] Why I am No Longer a Libertarian Either...

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Tue Jul 26 15:10:20 UTC 2005


On 7/26/05, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> And how did that competing company CEO get his pay? You are stuck in
> another chicken-egg paradox here Stuart that is a result of your
> ingrained prejudices and not the facts. The market always finds proper
> value. Claims that Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer isn't worth what they
> are paid, or Jobs, or any other highly paid CEO are based on
> puritanical protestant prejudices against ostentatiousness and
> inaccurate memes that claim that one man is worth any other.
> 
> Any economist can tell you that no two workers are worth the same pay
> for the same job, and there is no market rule limiting CEO pay as a
> proportion of avg worker pay. Workers at all levels get paid what they
> are worth, with few exceptions (typically when government and unions
> enforce non-market pay scales).
> 

Only an ideal market in an ideal world will find the proper value.
i.e. never in the real world. Monopolies and quasi-monopolies can
charge and pay what they like. Scams and fraudsters rip the real world
market to shreds.

Any economist can tell you that there is no such animal as the correct
pay for the job. The company pays as little as possible for *any* job.
Except where the people who decide on the minimum pay levels are
considering their own pay, when the rule is as much as possible. 
That's why middle managers put up with all the crap for twenty years,
because they hope to get promoted to where they can set their own
salary levels as high as they can get away with.


> Google Kelo v. City of New London, which was issued by the SCOTUS a
> little over a month ago or so. New London, CT, is seizing a whole
> middle class neighborhood and giving it to developers who promise to
> build higher value commerical and residential properties there that
> will generate more jobs and tax revinues for the city. Justices Souter,
> Breyer, Stevens, Ginsberg, and Kennedy, liberals all, voted in New
> London's favor.
> 
> Fortunately for us, Souter and Breyer both own property in a state
> where people are willing to take action. You've likely heard of the
> move to build the "Lost Liberty Hotel" on the 8 acre site of Souters
> farm house in Weare, NH. We also have found that Breyer owns 167 acres
> in Plainfield, NH and are going to seek to build Constitution Park
> there, putting the US and NH Constitutions in stone. Even more fun: it
> appears both justices paid the same assessment firm to grossly
> under-assess their properties (Souters home and land are only assessed
> at $108k, significantly below average for his town and below market
> value, which should be over $200k.) As these five justices have given
> us permission to take their homes, we intend to do so, just as if
> they'd put their couch on the curb with a "free" sign on it.
> 

Good! If you can get away with it. I have always said that the street
violence in the UK will not get fixed until more MPs are mugged and
have their own homes burglarised.


BillK



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