My point is that people in Africa work a lot harder than school custodians and yet make only a paltry few hundred dollars a year. So to truly pay everyone the same for their labor the money would have to come from somewhere….

Sorry.

@Ted”The idea that all people are created equal is incompatible with an economic system that creates wide inequality of income and wealth. Despite the rhetoric of those who defend the system of rampant exploitation we have now, those at the bottom of the economic ladder–the vast majority of the population!–do not enjoy the same opportunity or chance to succeed as those at the top. Certainly, socialist regimes have failed their lofty ideals. By its own standards, capitalism is a failure…but what’s amazing about it is that it fails even as an uncorrupted ideal!” Capitalism lacks ideals. It is frequently boostered by people with a variety of ideals, but it itself is just about the private ownership of capital. Anyway, some countries are capitalist without the problems outlined above. The US is just having some problems right now, and they aren’t unsolvable.

@Ted: “Shane, your income is not what you “earn.” It is a share of what is ripped out of the earth and exploited from your blood and those lower on the food chain than you (illegal immigrants, for example, and foreign labor), minus what those in the power elite (your employers and their investors, and corporate thieves) keep for themselves just because they can and you don’t belong to a union. Part of what you “earn” has been stolen. At the same time, you never earn what is rightfully yours. You are a small-time thief being ripped off by a mafia don. As am I.” You don’t earn anything, nor is anything stolen from you, Ted. Your labor is worth what other people will pay for it. Period. End of story. We have governments to change rules and move resources when we don’t like the outcome created by the above dynamic.

Also, if we treated everyone’s labor the same, both you and Shane would take a haircut so we could give a bunch of Africans a raise.

The idea that all people are created equal is incompatible with an economic system that creates wide inequality of income and wealth. Despite the rhetoric of those who defend the system of rampant exploitation we have now, those at the bottom of the economic ladder–the vast majority of the population!–do not enjoy the same opportunity or chance to succeed as those at the top. Certainly, socialist regimes have failed their lofty ideals. By its own standards, capitalism is a failure…but what’s amazing about it is that it fails even as an uncorrupted ideal!

@Shane, your income is not what you “earn.” It is a share of what is ripped out of the earth and exploited from your blood and those lower on the food chain than you (illegal immigrants, for example, and foreign labor), minus what those in the power elite (your employers and their investors, and corporate thieves) keep for themselves just because they can and you don’t belong to a union. Part of what you “earn” has been stolen. At the same time, you never earn what is rightfully yours. You are a small-time thief being ripped off by a mafia don. As am I.

@Robert: It is ahistorical to cite the invasions of the the Mongols, Turks, etc. as examples of uncivilized tribes slaughtering more civilized, settled peoples. Under Genghis Khan, for example, the Mongol empire invented the first system of mail, as well as universally-accepted paper money. The Mongols were an incredibly sophisticated society.

Which is not to say it was a fun weekend in Samarkand when they appeared on the horizon.

Tom,
Nah, I’m arguing for keeping what I earn and Ted is arguing for getting without having to.
I figured you’d jump on the fact I was bashing the War on Drugs faster than anything else considering what I do fer a livin’

Oh, and I personally like your idea about the the underwear.
“Free Your Skivvies, Let The Puppies Breath! You’ve Got Nothing to Lose But Your Racing Stripes!”