In response to a Guardian leader, "Slowing down the gravy train", criticising the disproportionate rise in executive pay

Link to article and thread at The Guardian.
 

Slowing down the "gravy train" of executive pay rises (and increasing wealth differentials in general) is not nearly enough to save us, any more than just slowing the increase in global carbon emissions is.

 

A broken bridge (and catastrophe) is waiting further along the track. All that slowing down will do, is delay (a little) the time it takes for us to get there.

 

Excessive income differentials may "not be good for free-market capitalism", but they are an inevitable consequence of it. Capitalism is inherently unjust, inhumane and UNSUSTAINABLE, because it has developed and been honed (by those who profited most), to serve and exploit humankind's primitive animal nature and behaviour. Unsurprisingly, in view of what Charles Darwin is supposed to have taught us about human origins, but like biblical literalists, our army of social scientists is loath to see itself, or those who employ them, as dominated by their animal nature.

 

Capitalism is like a dragon that produces golden eggs (vast amounts of wealth), which politicians of all shades believe they can ride and steer. The political right wants to leave most of the wealth to "market forces" and charity to distribute, while the political left wants the state to take a larger share for redistribution and the provision of social services. But, returning to the "train analogy", when it reaches the broken bridge, it will plunge into the abyss below, irrespective of who is in the driving seat.

 

The train of "state socialism" came completely off the rails a while back (to the mocking cheers of those on the capitalist train) and is now lying, still hissing and puffing  steam by the side of the track, as the capitalist train steams on at ever-increasing speed, tooting its whistle, its drivers and crew full of confidence, its passengers partying (especially in the first class and VIP carriages), waving from the windows, but oblivious (because in denial of the warnings) of the broken bridge ahead.

 

A hopeless situation? Not quite. Not if some of us, at least, are prepared to jump off the train and walk back to the wreck of socialism, where we will find a few pieces (values and ideals) which, together with some newer ideas (see link below), are essential for creating another, alternative, train, that will run on an entirely different track (based on humankind's more enlightened, human nature), with no broken bridge ahead, but a clear (though slightly uphill) run towards a far less materialistic, but more meaningful, joyful, just, humane and, on our finite and imperilled planet, SUSTAINABLE society.

 

If we can get it running quickly enough, with just ONE carriage, and heading along the sustainable track, by tooting and whistling we will attract the attention of increasing numbers of people on the doomed capitalist train, who, at the sight of our example, will hopefully wake up and want to join us, which they can do, of course, adding carriages to our train - as many as possible, before theirs reaches the broken bridge. You have to use strong "magic" and imagination here to help the analogy along.

 

More in this vein at For http://www.spaceship-earth.org

 

2nd Post

 

[inperspective], I'm glad you brought up David Beckham, because celebrity superstars like him, despite their small numbers, are fuelling this MADNESS.

 

I can understand that a company executive, who has to work himself to death, missing out on a proper family and social life, for a mere million pounds a year, must feel very hard done by and grossly undervalued when superstars rake in far more doing what they love to do anyway (making music, acting, playing football, or whatever), with relatively short hours and little stress, and would no doubt do for just an average wage - or less! - if that was all that was on offer.

 

It's only thanks to their agents (mostly lawyers, I imagine), technology and mass society, that they are able to make (earn?) such fabulous amounts of MONEY - which, we should remind ourselves, is just the most versatile form of POWER, and thus of such overwhelming appeal to our animal nature. 

 

But what is it they say about POWER  . . . . . ?

 

My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org

 

3rd Post

 

[Baaz], what you refer to as "Human ingenuity", I see as "dumb-animal cunning", which served individual Homo sapiens and their family groups very well when they where struggling for survival and advantage in the natural environment (which included other, rival, groups of humans), but which in the artificial socio-economic environment of the modern world, threatens to be his undoing.