Can we talk about a Maximum Wage?

[hunter]

55. It's not likely I can sell you anything. But I have zero respect for great wealth.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the Koch brothers, Mitt Romney, the Wal-Mart heirs, god knows how many bankers and other financial manipulators... they do not, and they have not, made this world a better place. And even if they had they "deserve" no more than a very comfortable living, and maybe, for the most decent among them (none on the list above!) a lifetime of accolades and celebrity.

Are you wealthy, do you serve the wealthy? Or are you one of Steinbeck's "temporarily embarrassed capitalists?"

See that, I can get the quote right, and it doesn't mean what the right-wingers are always blathering about either. They are as pudding-brained as the "so-called communists" Steinbeck was talking about.

Both capitalism and communism grow deadly when evil men rise to power and ideological purity is enforced. Great disparities of wealth are the fuel of revolutions. It's a rare human who is not corrupted by, or at least disconnected from ordinary society, by great wealth.

As a practical matter these dangerous extremes are avoided with a generous welfare system and a steeply progressive tax system.

I stick with my multiple of 20. The uber-wealthy ought to be taxed out of existence.