Interesting Links for 13-01-2015
- Finally, a guide to successfully interrogating terrorists
(tags: terrorism interrogation psychology ) - We have experienced anarchy like this before. We should not over-react to it
(tags: liberal anarchy terrorism violence law politics ) - £300 for a job reference is the latest outrage in the exploitation of interns
(tags: work OhForFucksSake ( Read more... )
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If one cares about it, one should campaign to change the systematic inequities that it represents.
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It’s an exchange for a) according to classical economics a balance of demand and supply influenced by marginal costs and marginal benefits of productive labour or b) a more Marxist view that it is an exchange or return for being in a position of power - such power might be derived from being the only person willing and able to do the job as per classical economics or it might be a more perfidious use of types of political power.
The other problem is that apologising for how much you earn is not a signal to the universe to turn off the abundance - or do anything about the abundance. The universe is not listening. I think it is incapable of listening.
Basically boat number 8 is sailing close to mystical hooee.
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And money _is_ an exchange for a person's time (or amalgamation of people's time/resources). I give someone money, they give me either their own time, or access to the results of someone else's time/labour. (Or the resources they've captured, theoretically through the investment of time).
So if you take "energy" to be a metaphor for "the effort that people put in" it's not that far off.
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It’s often a return to the effort that their ancestor put in, some of that effort being nakedly criminal or utterly immoral. Often it’s just the luck of being in the right place at the right time, or vice versa.
Nor do I accept that it is always fair to give a monetary return to the effort someone puts in. Al Capone put a lot of effort in to extortion, I don’t think he should have made any money at it.
Number 8 entirely ignores systematic and systemic bias in the economic system.
I could pick holes in most of them but I’m grumpiest about number 8.
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I definitely agree that the whole capitalist edifice is terribly problematic, but I'm not sure that millionaire mob bosses will be taking their advice from that site.
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As a percentage of the people who are reading that page, I suspect it's near zero.
Your approach comes across similarly as when people read a site saying "Be more confident in yourself, and stand up for your beliefs!" and say "But what about all the sociopaths who are far too confident in their beleifs? You're sending them a terrible message!"
I know far more people who feel guilty about their income when they earn less than twice the median wage, than I do people who are worth an absolute fortune by subverting democratic institutions.
But possibly we move in different circles :-)
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It’s about the explicit assumption that income, especially significantly higher than average income is a result energy or effort rather than a mixture of factors including inheritance, luck and systematic bias in the system.
It’s also about the implicit assumption that the universe has some providential power and that if you keep apologising for your good fortune the universe will yellow card you for ingratitude and your house will burn down.
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But the amount of money you pay is not especially related to the amount of effort. The best-paid people in this country are paid more than 100x minimum wage - are those people *really* putting in 100x more effort than minimum wage workers? (I am sure they are not putting in zero effort, just not convinced it's *that much more* effort).
I'm not planning on being sorry for being paid more than average; but I am sorry that I'm part of a society that conspires to shit on people who are poor, and also I *do* feel bad for moaning about my (minor) financial difficulties in front of people who can't afford basics like food.
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