Common Sense

I just read an interesting article in the USA Today that dealt with Democratic Socialism and inequality in the United States. The intriguing thing about the piece is that it was simply written and made common sense.

It made me think about some of the issues she talked about. For instance, to me, sure, CEOs and owners of companies are expected to make much more money than the average worker. A reasonable question is, "how much more?" (And I know the usual retort to these type of questions is "Well, who's to say how much more is right or wrong?" My simple rejoinder to that is that we do it in hundreds of areas of life--we have to. For instance, we have to make a decision on what age people can drive, what age they vote, what age they can go in the military.)

About 40 to 50 years ago, CEOs made about 30 times what the average worker in their companies made. Now it can range from 100 to 300 times what the average worker makes. Something is rotten in this situation.

The article talks about similar topics and is persuasive. It seems America is beginning to see capitalism in a new light. That is, unregulated capitalism is a train already off the rails. Thoroughly regulated capitalism is a train that is in good working condition and has skilled, watchful eyes on it.

We've seen the former. We need the latter.

***