Greed, plain and simple, and a complete absence of checks and balances.
There is no problem in creating an endeavour to achieve some goal and make money from it in the process but it is a problem when making a better life for oneself becomes a trip to hoard as much riches as possible just for the sake of it.
I’ve been lucky enough to know people with a lot of money, both old money and new money. Old money were down to earth people, still working on their family business, leading a very discreet life, with no show off. Polite, well spoken. New money - I prefer the french nouvelle riche - were insuferable twits, that liked to throw around their money as if it meant anything.
The old money people paid whoever worked for them well; I was told, in no uncertain terms, trust is a very high value commodity. They wanted to keep people around them loyal and reliable. The other lot paid pittance salaries.
There is only so much money needed and spendable. I don’t mind paying taxes, although I do say there is a lot of misuse of all the money collect from it, but I consider it the price of civilization. I have an NHS, good roads and somewhat well taken care infrastructure, free public education, subsidized medication, unemployement by the state, paid sick days, paid parental leave, etc. That is money well spent.
Meanwhile, I see companies paying pittances. Tax the blood out of them. Force them to pay higher salaries in order to have higher tax deductions. Throw out deductions for charity; that is white washing greed. Increase paid vacation days (we get paid 14 months here and only work 11, as we have 22 days of paid vacation, plus an extra month salary for holiday “bonus” and another for christmas) and pay higher per diem values.
A company can work to only break even and still produce a lot.
Greed, plain and simple, and a complete absence of checks and balances.
There is no problem in creating an endeavour to achieve some goal and make money from it in the process but it is a problem when making a better life for oneself becomes a trip to hoard as much riches as possible just for the sake of it.
I’ve been lucky enough to know people with a lot of money, both old money and new money. Old money were down to earth people, still working on their family business, leading a very discreet life, with no show off. Polite, well spoken. New money - I prefer the french nouvelle riche - were insuferable twits, that liked to throw around their money as if it meant anything.
The old money people paid whoever worked for them well; I was told, in no uncertain terms, trust is a very high value commodity. They wanted to keep people around them loyal and reliable. The other lot paid pittance salaries.
There is only so much money needed and spendable. I don’t mind paying taxes, although I do say there is a lot of misuse of all the money collect from it, but I consider it the price of civilization. I have an NHS, good roads and somewhat well taken care infrastructure, free public education, subsidized medication, unemployement by the state, paid sick days, paid parental leave, etc. That is money well spent.
Meanwhile, I see companies paying pittances. Tax the blood out of them. Force them to pay higher salaries in order to have higher tax deductions. Throw out deductions for charity; that is white washing greed. Increase paid vacation days (we get paid 14 months here and only work 11, as we have 22 days of paid vacation, plus an extra month salary for holiday “bonus” and another for christmas) and pay higher per diem values.
A company can work to only break even and still produce a lot.