re: #2 RoadWarrior

Nobody should have the right to limit the reward to anyone else’s labor. If someone doesn’t like how much a CEO earns, they are free to build an organization to acquire shares in that company and change the board of directors. Why should I care if Mark Zuckerberg has $20 billion? It doesn’t hurt me. I wasn’t going to get any piece of that money if he didn’t earn it. I’m certainly not entitled to his shares. I really do not care. I need to focus on what I can do for the world. Maybe, one day, I can figure out how to contribute something that people appreciate, as well.

The problem as I see it though is that the rewards are not always distributed according to actual contributions but usually according to bargaining power. Rank-and-file workers today have very little bargaining power, whereas CEOs and boards of directors have immense bargaining power, and can basically set their own salaries.

Bargaining power is not the necessarily the same as “earning.” For example, if you are dying of thirst in a desert, I could sell you a bottle of water for $1000. It might be worth it to you but the premium I receive is due to bargaining power, not because I “earned” it.