Inequality, Dignity and Freedom

So, on average, one of the top hedge fund managers or traders made 10,000 times as much as an ordinary worker. Even if they worked 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, that is only 4.2 times as many hours as an ordinary worker doing 40 hours a week. And many workers are having to work far more than 40 hours, while being paid a 40-hour salary. And they don't add anything of value to the economy or civilization, they basically move money around.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/the_dignity_of_work049079.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/opinion/krugman-inequality-dignity-and-freedom.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Inequality, Dignity and Freedom
Paul Krugman
FEB. 13, 2014

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It’s all very well to talk in the abstract about the dignity of work, but to suggest that workers can have equal dignity despite huge inequality in pay is just silly. In 2012, the top 40 hedge fund managers and traders were paid a combined $16.7 billion, equivalent to the wages of 400,000 ordinary workers. Given that kind of disparity, can anyone really believe in the equal dignity of work?

In fact, the people who seem least inclined to respect the efforts of ordinary workers are the winners of the wealth lottery. Over the past few months, we’ve been harangued by a procession of angry billionaires, furious that they’re not receiving the deference, the acknowledgment of their superiority, that they believe is their due. For example, last week the investor Sam Zell went on CNN Money to defend the 1 percent against “envy,” and he asserted that “the 1 percent work harder. The 1 percent are much bigger factors in all forms of our society.” Dignity for all!

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