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Management allowed wages to get this high because of their own
You've addressed this already. You want to see workers get their wages in line with a "living wage" right? Why not expect this from our leaders? Lead by example - what a joke - "Do as I say, not as I do". You think corporate & government leaders are going to give up their outlandish pay, pensions, bonuses, financial loopholes, etc.? Fat chance. I dare say it will take a revolution to do this. The top of the food chain in the capitalistic world we live is the investor. Corporate & fund managers feel driven to report astronomical yearly growth numbers. It's artificially too high - heard of Enron, Worldcom, etc.? It seems possible to me that this system could have limits or at least some functional checks & balances. I feel that no manager should have his raises/bonuses directly tied to the AMOUNT of a business's financial growth. Greed makes this a collision course to a failed endeavor. Many of us have 401K's to help us think we'll have something for our retirement. We are all at the top of the food chain in this regard. Sure I'd like my money to do well but not at the cost of imploding the system. I'm not greedy & don't want constant double-digit growth reports from my investments. No system could support itself this way for long. The entire time I've been in a 401K system (about 13 years now) I have been amazed at the monumental growth of mutual funds, stocks, etc. It's no wonder the rich get richer with this system. It seems doomed to fail.