this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
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[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

I don't know if I really buy "not doing much of the work". Middle management maybe but to own and run a company is serious work. Especially starting a company is huge risk. So if you take the risk you get a lot of the reward.

IMHO ways to help even this out are:

  1. Higher taxes on the wealthy. Keep that progressive tax curve going (and not regressing). I think these people do deserve to be rewarded, but up to a point. Honestly I think the tax rate should approach 100% as you approach the very highest percentile of income.
  2. Universal basic income. Make it so that people don't need to work. They get to choose to work when the compensation is worth it to them. This makes explotation much harder and makes it much easier for people to negotiate fair compensation (whether that is salary, profit sharing, a mix or something else).

I would also like to see some way to change the natural goal of a company from "make as much money as possible" to "bring as much value to people as possible", but I think these two things would be a good start.

[–] Creddit@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

I agree with you. Something I noticed and wanted to add: When I mention UBI to people, a lot of them are hearing it like a guarantee that everyone gets enough income to be happy or be comfortable.

I have found that people who interpret basic income in this way tend to become strongly opposed to UBI on the grounds that it could never be funded and would lead to social collapse due to limited resources.

Idk what you picture, but I imagine a person on UBI affording to eat rice and beans in a studio apartment somewhere in a low cost-of-living and low property value geography (though perhaps among pleasant neighbors and like minded folks).

So I kind of think the name "Universal Basic Income" needs to be reworked so it sounds more harsh, almost like a necessary evil. Something like "Rock Bottom Income", idk.

I don't have the perfect answer, but do you think conservatives would get on board if it was like "The poors can't complain, they can take their complaints straight to Bean Town if they don't like the wages" or do you think they'd still find it unpalatable?

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 points 13 hours ago

If you own the company (or a lot of shares), you gain wealth by doing literally nothing if the company's value increases. On top of probably just keeping the profits. Plus the "use my stock as collateral, give me a low interest personal loan, that's not taxed as income lol" wealth back.

I'm not talking so much about the petit bourgeoisie that's working hard every day making donuts to sell. I'm talking about big C Capital that buys something and just takes the profits.

The CEO at my old job can't code. He can't do UI design. He doesn't do sales or customer service. He sometimes talks to other rich assholes to fundraise, but mostly he makes questionable decisions and hurts morale. But if the company goes big, he'll get filthy rich and the people who actually built the thing will not.

That said, higher taxes on the wealthy (plus closing loopholes like the loan thing) would help. So would universal basic income.

It's funny because conservatives cry about "welfare queens" that just take money for nothing, but it's the rich who can do that. If you have a few million, you can just coast on investments. Little to no risk. Once again, projection.