People round the world are getting increasingly upset by the huge wage packets for a few and the lack of a living wage for the many.
Astonishingly, a survey at the beginning of this year in the USA found that over half of voters from all over that country want to see higher taxes for the richest 2% and for corporations rather than just cuts on spending for social services. In fact, over 80% were very much against cuts to Medicaid and Education.
Similarly in London, a recent survey found that two thirds thought that a living wage should be mandatory and a further fifth wanted it at least to be a recommended requirement.
In Switzerland where referenda are taken seriously, a recent vote to limit top wages to 12 times the lowest paid, produced only 65% against the idea of such a strict limit. I wonder what the result would have been if they had used J P Morgan’s recommendation of 20 times?
These are extraordinary findings in countries where 'market forces' and austerity have been the predominant ideologies for three decades.
Here in New Zealand, the same concerns are becoming more widespread. A recent article in the Dominion Post (Nov 13) made an appeal for Chief Executive pay to be reined in. They pointed out that several million dollar wages were collected by CEOs from ANZ, BNZ, Fonterra, Fletcher's and Sky TV. These were all 20 to 35 times higher than the average worker in each company. A more honest comparison would have been with the median wage (the middle worker's wage which is not artificially inflated by the very high top values). This would mean that the CEOs are getting many times more than their workers, especially those on the lowest level of wage.
Putting all this together, it's beginning to look as if people really are fed up with the huge disparity in income distribution that typifies a lot of western countries such as ours and want to do something about it.