Some Thoughts On Statistical Inequality
In 1965, the CEO of an average large public company earned about twice as much as a front line worker. Today, that figure is 278 times.
The trend began to take shape in the 70s. For literally hundred of years, Wall Street was predicated upon pushing capital into business and mortgages. That all changed over the last twenty or so years. Bankers got creative, slimy, and above all- greedy.
If you want to go big, you gotta go hard. Wall Street’s focus transitioned towards riskier bets with greater upside, such as securities and mega mergers. Basically, capital moved away from actual businesses, towards other pools of cash.
By 2017, wall streeters accounted for 20% of the country’s corporate profits.
These deal makers were simply a different breed.
“Every year that goes by, more and more of the added value in our society goes towards capital, and less and less towards labor. What you end up with is a very unstable society”, says a prominent managing director at the consulting firm Greenwich associates”.
Greed is clearly the prime factor behind what took place. But also, we moved away from supporting labor because because the internet and technology boosted efficiency in the market. Less people are required to produce the same output. Why invest in the less efficient business when you could place a bet on the very force squeezing the company into a leaner form-factor?
There are things in life you simply cannot control, macroeconomic trends included. Markets will ultimately gain efficiency as technology expands. Could our society have done more to guard the most vulnerable? Certainly. Are the bankruptcy laws pretty much designed as a get-out-of-jail free card for the ultra wealthy? absolutely. But a capitalistic society is simply not engineered to protect or educate. It it designed to pummel the less efficient firm.
Capitalism, much like the Gen 2.0 Wall Street prick, thrives in a world with unlimited upside; even if the the flip side of that reality contains the possibility of spectacular failure.
And so, one must adapt at the same rate (at least) of change as the economic background, or one will inevitably be left behind, a statistic telling the story of the widening gap we spoke of prior.
Adaption is predicated, almost entirely, on the ability to continuously self-educate. You may gain that education in the marketplace, in books, or perhaps even in the classroom. The only caveat is that you must seek this education, it will never find its way to you.
To live in a capitalistic society and not be entirely prepared for the downstream ramifications of such a reality, is asinine .There will always be opportunity to get “big mad” at the system. But You might get farther if you funnel that energy inward. Who says you can’t be the CEO?
