"How Inequality Corrupts Society"
How Inequality Corrupts Society
By Salvatore Babones, Inequality.org / at TruthOut
http://www.truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/46660
"SNIP...........................................
For $100,000 a year, few of us would be willing to take decisions that we know will bring horrible deaths to other people. For $1,000,000 a year, youll find volunteers. For $10,000,000 a year, almost any high-achieving corporate executive can find ways to rationalize the evil that his or her company commits, convincing himself or herself that the blame really lies with someone else. For $100,000,000 a year, you can easily find people who will knowingly kill hundreds or thousands of people just to keep their own profits flowing.
Inequality corrupts. It corrupts society at all levels. At the top, otherwise normal people will do morally despicable things if the payoff is high enough. A million dollars a year compensates for a lot of cognitive dissonance.
At the bottom, inequality also forces people to make choices they would never otherwise make. When people have stable, well-paying jobs with full health insurance, sick pay, and vacation time they are very unlikely to steal from other people.
.............................................SNIP"