Atlas Shrugged is one of my
favorite books. I guess I relate to it because I have been and currently am a producer who is taxed to support non producers
and the number of non producers keep growing and so do my taxes to support them. Thus I work even harder for less. I
kind of resent that.
I am capitalistic in a way that I believe that if I work
harder I do deserve more than those who work less hard or who's work is less valued in society. Currently my work is not that
valued in society so I will let that speak for itself. I guess I enjoy the premise that there are opportunities to excell
and be better compensated for it if society finds it a value. This instills motivation in people like me... to learn
and improve through hard work to greater rewards.
On the other hand I do believe that all work and workers are
important but not necessarily equally. I see society like an anthill, ants being "social" insects. The queen is
the most important... with out her the hill will die... yet with out the workers the queen will starve but with out the queen
the workers would not even exist. That is what makes the queen the most important.
I see businesses as the
queen in human economic society and philosophers, intellectuals and artists as the moral guidance to balance the actions of
business. They each have a important role. I am on the business side of things not that I do not have a moral
concience... I just feel that economically if not for the business the other activities could not take place.
No
businesses... no employment... no taxes... no help for all the other members of the anthill that depend on these very things
to perform their important roles.
Because I do have some liberal views, I often encounter the anti business perspective
from some I associate with. Often it seems a bit extreme to me as I am certain multi million dollar salaries for CEO's seems
to them.
It's just that to me they are biting the hand that feeds them. They are tending to their and their families
basic necessities by being employed by a business. In woriking for the business they then often feel that they deserve to
be as well compensated for thier work as the business owners or leaders. This puzzles me. Let me tell you why.
Like
many business owners, big and small, I put my whole economic well being on the line when I started my business. I mortgaged
my home, cashed in savings bonds, CD's, my retirement account and borrowed money to get started. A lot of the mega corporations
today had a founder who did the same type of thing.
If I fail Il lose everything. My work...my choice. If
I succeed after incurring this risk and working 7 days a week 10-14 hours a day... one day I might get a million dollar bonus.
Many in my circle say that is not FAIR. I employ people and I have heard some of them say that they should make
the same amount of money as me.
I do not take offense and simply remind them that although one day I could see
some significant rewards for my investment of time, effort and security that I still drive an old Ford and live in a thousand
square foot cabin.
I encourage them to do the same as me and put all they own on the line and employ people. They generally just politely grumble that they are not willing to put everything they have on the line to increase their
personal economy and would rather leave all of the headaches to someone else and go drink beer down at the river after their
8 hour shift instead of staying late and doing spread sheets.
They are siimply different members of the hill and
I do not disrespect them for it and value the tasks they perform for compensation at a level appropriate for their contribution Actually I pay my employees $20.00 per hour which is above the going rate for similiar employment. I find that builds loyalty
and a sense of how I value them more than some other small employer would.
But still... some of them grumble at
times...a microcasm of society with in my little business. They do not see the expenses. They are ignorant not only to the
additional cost of their employment incurred by me through workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, matching
Social Security payments and other tax levys by the State and Federal Government... and they did not risk their home to start
a business which employs others.
In the novel of Atlas Shrugged people like me got tired of supporting the non
productive, todays being able bodied workers who rather collect a government check funded by me or those who think that all
work, education and effort is equally valuable, than be productive themselves. They went off to basically start a new world
where effort equaled reward.
I kind of like that. Doctors, Scientists, some artists and the like get paid
more because it takes more effort to be a master of these things. I agree with that...I mean does one really think that
a one hit musical wonder deserves as much as a Aerosmith... a Tortilla Salesman the same as a Surgeon? If so I am asking for
equal pay despite not having the expenditures, effort and education of a surgeon. Because I am human and I am valuable.
I guess I relate to it because I have been and currently am a producer who is taxed to support non producers and the number of non producers keep growing and so do my taxes to support them.
Thus I work even harder for less. I kind of resent that.
I am capitalistic in a way that I believe that if I work harder I do deserve more than those who work less hard or who's work is less valued in society. Currently my work is not that valued in society so I will let that speak for itself. I guess I enjoy the premise that there are opportunities to excell and be better compensated for it if society finds it a value.
This instills motivation in people like me... to learn and improve through hard work to greater rewards.
On the other hand I do believe that all work and workers are important but not necessarily equally. I see society like an anthill, ants being "social" insects. The queen is the most important... with out her the hill will die... yet with out the workers the queen will starve but with out the queen the workers would not even exist.
That is what makes the queen the most important.
I see businesses as the queen in human economic society and philosophers, intellectuals and artists as the moral guidance to balance the actions of business.
They each have a important role.
I am on the business side of things not that I do not have a moral concience... I just feel that economically if not for the business the other activities could not take place.
No businesses... no employment... no taxes... no help for all the other members of the anthill that depend on these very things to perform their important roles.
Because I do have some liberal views, I often encounter the anti business perspective from some I associate with. Often it seems a bit extreme to me as I am certain multi million dollar salaries for CEO's seems to them.
It's just that to me they are biting the hand that feeds them. They are tending to their and their families basic necessities by being employed by a business. In woriking for the business they then often feel that they deserve to be as well compensated for thier work as the business owners or leaders. This puzzles me. Let me tell you why.
Like many business owners, big and small, I put my whole economic well being on the line when I started my business. I mortgaged my home, cashed in savings bonds, CD's, my retirement account and borrowed money to get started. A lot of the mega corporations today had a founder who did the same type of thing.
If I fail Il lose everything. My work...my choice.
If I succeed after incurring this risk and working 7 days a week 10-14 hours a day... one day I might get a million dollar bonus.
Many in my circle say that is not FAIR.
I employ people and I have heard some of them say that they should make the same amount of money as me.
I do not take offense and simply remind them that although one day I could see some significant rewards for my investment of time, effort and security that I still drive an old Ford and live in a thousand square foot cabin.
I encourage them to do the same as me and put all they own on the line and employ people.
They generally just politely grumble that they are not willing to put everything they have on the line to increase their personal economy and would rather leave all of the headaches to someone else and go drink beer down at the river after their 8 hour shift instead of staying late and doing spread sheets.
They are siimply different members of the hill and I do not disrespect them for it and value the tasks they perform for compensation at a level appropriate for their contribution
Actually I pay my employees $20.00 per hour which is above the going rate for similiar employment. I find that builds loyalty and a sense of how I value them more than some other small employer would.
But still... some of them grumble at times...a microcasm of society with in my little business. They do not see the expenses. They are ignorant not only to the additional cost of their employment incurred by me through workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, matching Social Security payments and other tax levys by the State and Federal Government... and they did not risk their home to start a business which employs others.
In the novel of Atlas Shrugged people like me got tired of supporting the non productive, todays being able bodied workers who rather collect a government check funded by me or those who think that all work, education and effort is equally valuable, than be productive themselves. They went off to basically start a new world where effort equaled reward.
I kind of like that.
Doctors, Scientists, some artists and the like get paid more because it takes more effort to be a master of these things.
I agree with that...I mean does one really think that a one hit musical wonder deserves as much as a Aerosmith... a Tortilla Salesman the same as a Surgeon? If so I am asking for equal pay despite not having the expenditures, effort and education of a surgeon.
Because I am human and I am valuable.