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from the picthfork-futures-accelerate-to-new-highs dept.
Nick Hanauer, a self-described "plutocrat" says history shows that the current economic and governmental situation can't last, and the USA should should get busy changing before the system breaks down.
From the memo to his "Fellow Zillionaires":
I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I'm no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can't even imagine.
But let's speak frankly to each other. I'm not the smartest guy you've ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I'm not technical at all - I can't write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future.
If we don't do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn't eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It's not if, it's when.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turonah on Thursday July 03 2014, @08:23AM
This is the first time I've read anything from the "1%" that not only recognises that they are, in fact, the "1%", but also doesn't read like it should be sprayed over fields as fertilizer. While other big names are calling for abolishment of the minimum wage (Koch et al., for example - http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/10/2280101/charles-koch-minimum-wage/ [thinkprogress.org]), this guy at least recognises the fact that being paid minimum wage means that "they'd pay even less if it weren't illegal."
Realising of course, that he's really only out to protect his own ass and assets, he makes a very good point on keeping the current system sustainable. The real question is do we want sustainable, or do we want equitable?
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday July 03 2014, @09:37AM
> Realising of course, that he's really only out to protect his own ass and assets, he makes a very good point on keeping the current system sustainable. The real question is do we want sustainable, or do we want equitable?
I think his point is that the sustainability is derived from the equitability - people won't revolt if they don't feel that they are being unfairly treated. So it's not a choice between the two, it's that you can't have one without the other.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 03 2014, @02:27PM
If you buy into the "People act in rational self-interest" theory, then his point is supposed to be a central consideration in all business behavior. That is, you pay your people the highest possible wage in order to recruit the best possible talent. You invest in your company, your neighborhood, and your society in order to improve over the long term. Think about Henry Ford's work to educate his employees, to make sure they were well paid and happy. Think about Starbucks' plan to get all of its employees "free" ASU degrees.
The hardcore Randians will tell you that those companies embody the utopian ideals of Rearden Steel or Wyatt Oil. Companies intent on paying as little as possible, even to the point of demanding the government provide nutritional support to their employees, are the antithesis of utopian capitalism - they are Boyle's Steel and Taggart Rail.
But people aren't rational. Few of them will not eat the marshmallow [wikipedia.org]; Ayn Rand's ridiculous utopia will never come to pass, and no one is going to listen to Nick Hanauer.