Money attracts

from a comment on
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/12/paul-krugman-th.html?cid=143120254#comment-143120254
S Brennan says...

Money attracts the best and the brightest.

Sometimes, sometimes not...

Money attracts the criminal element.

Always true.

Money attracts the sociopaths of the world.

Almost always true. Because of what our society attaches to money, it gives sociopaths all of what they seek.

The elaborate justifications for this high pay have been many. Almost all have been shown in time to be completely false.

Quoting from a book that is lost to me.

"Any businessman will tell you, if your choice is between being a producer of goods and a middle man who takes a percentage, the sure bet is with the percentage. No start-up costs, no production cost, the lowest overhead in the chain to market, your labor is largely unskilled and what skills you need are plentiful"

Q] So why are those who do the least for given society, take the lowest risk, take home the highest pay?

A] Because they have been able through their agents in the media, to convince enough people that they contribute more to society than any other group...and the more they are given, the more they can perpetrate this myth.

A fair tax system addresses unforeseen imbalances that profit those who through whatever means are in the right place at the right time with the right amount of capitol.

Factoid for those who sore elbows patting themselves on the back:

If Bill Gates had been born 20 years earlier...or later, no one would have heard of his name. He came from one of Seattle's wealthiest families and he was able to capitalize on an singular event. Few college dropouts had 100,000 to throw around back then, fewer still had access to large amounts of capitol at the age of 20. Consider, Microsoft [outside of a (previously used) silencing agreement] has never come up wit a single innovation.
December 19, 2008 at 11:05 AM