The BBC’s News Magazine asks: If there were no rich and poor, and everyone had an equal share of the world’s total pay packet, how much would they earn?
You can find out where you fall on the world wage scale.
Any thoughts on the spiritual and ethical aspects of the world wage scale, or how your life would be different if you fell at a different place on the continuum?
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If I’m going to make exactly the same, whether I work my rear end off or do nothing, I’m not going to work my rear end off.
Isn’t that just as much an indictment of what we consider “work”?
It seems to me that if people were truly responding to vocations in their lives (God’s call in terms of their time, talents and treasure), then this “No More Than Absolutely Necessary—Unless I Get More Toys!” attitude wouldn’t apply. Just a thought.
JC Fisher
[With happy memories of first reading U.K. LeGuin’s “The Dispossessed”: about a world where people have the *same word* for Work&Play!]
Chip, I think you have a bit of a point. If people weren’t allowed to keep a larger percentage of the wealth they created, they might be inclined to produce less. But financial incentives are not the only kinds of incentives. And many people who work extremely hard make very little.
What’s pops out when you look at the ranked list is how very well it correlates with the presence of democratic and market-oriented institutions, or to put it the other way around the weak governance and cleptocracies. To put it another way, wages tend to be highest when it is working with the most private capital per capita.
Where our greatest ethical duty lies is to examine how we can best help those who under poor and adverse governance change their institutions for the better.
Actually, if everyone had an equal share of the world’s pay packet, the amount that everyone would have would tend toward zero. If I’m going to make exactly the same, whether I work my rear end off or do nothing, I’m not going to work my rear end off. And neither will most of the rest of the world. You must have a balance between wealth creation and wealth distribution, and if you don’t reward wealth creation, before long you won’t have any to distribute or redistribute.
Chip M. please sign your name when you comment ~ed.