General News Switzerland debates a maximum wage.

Excellent idea.

 

I think this idea is an absolutely terrible idea that discourages success.

 

Considering the article specifically says one of the outraged groups are the bankers who get insane paychecks from the company, but the company had to be saved by the country.

 

I think it redefines success, so that "success" = "quality of life for everyone working in your company," rather than "finding ways to get people to work for less money." If the maximum wage was fixed to a dollar amount you'd be correct, but CEOs have a built in tool to increase their maximum wage by improving compensation for their employees.

 

I think this is a great idea. Yeah yeah, capitalism and all, but the rich sometimes make way too much. No one needs a giant estate which is the size of the Mall of America (part of the top 20 largest malls in the world). The way I see it is that the rich should have limitations on how much they make, or give up some of that money to charity. The poor make too little and the rich should help them out at least. Too much money is better than not enough money since that usually correlates to too many privileges is better than none.

 

It discourages success in people who are selfish, which is a good thing because we want them to be bred out of the gene pool.

 

Personally, I don't see it as discouraging success. I see it as discouraging exploitation.

 

there is a difference between success and greed.

look at walmart, the 6 heirs to the walmart fortune are worth collectively about 36billion, none of them have ever worked a day in their life, 5 of them have serious drug and drinking problems, and yet never get prosecuted for their criminal behaviors because of how powerful their money makes them in a corrupt and broken system, and yet the majority of the people at walmart doing the actual work are forced by the company to be part time employees, paid pitifully low wages without benifits, and they have to go on food stamps and welfare just to survive.

Alice Walton herself is on her 6th DUII, and most people are lucky if they escape jail time for their 2nd. But because he dad created walmart, and then proceeded to systematicly weaken and destroy the american econamy and manafacturing system, just so he can utilize cheap goods and labor from china to make the junk he sells, and pay americans crap wages to hawk it in his stores, the walton family is untouchable, while they just use america as a bank to rob.

it is out of control.

Mitt Romney diverged from his fathers path, and became a coorporate raider, destroying over a hundred thousand american jobs, shipping them over to china, then liquidating the companies he bought, and made a quarter of a billion dollars doing it. often, the companies he would buy when he was in venture capital were doing well, he would intentionally sabotage them, just so he had an excuse to raid what value they had.

and lets not get started on the failures of the banking industry. I was cheated out of $230k that was set aside for the education of my brother, my cousin, and myself because wells fargo refused to follow the terms laid out in the trust document. they were constantly trying to find any way they can to deny paying my books and tuition, just because they hoped to raid it once I became inellgable to use it.

then there was predatory practices in the lending world that led to the housing bubble, and the ceo's and hedge fund managers who both creating the toxic programs, and made billions off of them got of scotfree.

success is not valid if you harm others to make your money.

it is more important that the american citizens can earn enough from their jobs to be stable, and be able to pay for the necessities, and have enough set aside for emergencies than it is for Alice Walton to be able to afford to get out of ramming another car off the road in one of her drunken rages, or mitt romney to be able to afford another car elevator for his mansion.

but the system will always be stacked against the hard working americans when the lazy, entitled rich can cheat the system, cheat the tax code, and create unethical ways of getting more money when they cant even find enough things to spend the money they already have on.

We aren't talking about J.K. Rowling having an idea for a book that ends up becoming a cultural phenomenom, and makes her the richest writer ever.

we are talking about corrupt people who have no conscience or empathy destroying the world econamy, and making sure they sap as much out of it before it collapses again, and not because of people on social assistance, but because there are rich people who will never feel themselves to be rich enough.

 

It only discourages greed. No one really EARNS that much money, and no one needs it.

 

I don't see it working to be honest. Businesses will find a way to overcome legislations. I do believe it is a good idea.

 

After the whole debacle about the ACA, I'm not sure this would work. Business people would find ways to keep more money. I'm all for capping outrageous amounts, but I'm not sure if this would actually work.

 

Yes, but simply capping doesn't encourage executives to actually raise the pay, and thus quality of life, of the lower paid workers.

 

Exactly....so that's why this is pretty useless. We can't make people do anything they don't want to do. So we need to be creative.

 

I have always been skeptical of telling people that they cannot earn any more money for it puts a ceiling on initiative, incentive, productivity, etc. At the same time, I despise watching CEO's making people work on wages so little they cannot survive just so they can live on a higher income.

I prefer a system that enforces a minimum wage based on inflation and the economics of the time. At the same time, CEO's should not be allowed to get a pay rise as a reward for sacking staff.

 

Switzerland are wanting to introduce this, of all countries?!

I think it's a good idea, but I think France's 70% supertax is a lot more efficient (especially if spread across a large area, like the entire Eurozone for example).

---------- Post added 25th Nov 2013 at 07:10 PM ----------

"I cannot do my job to the best of my abilities because I'm earning a pitiful 500 000EUR per year rather than 700 000.

Putting any emotional 'how can people be allowed to earn so much whilst...' arguments aside for a second, how is that statement at all plausible?

The two can work together. In fact, the cap isn't an absolute cap; it's capped a 1200% (!!! that's still a ridiculous amount of money and difference) of a 'normal employee's' wage. Raise median wages and you can raise your own.

 

I haven't talked to you in too long!!

With that said consider this

a 12:1 ration means a Swiss CEO can only make 12 times the lowest wage earner.

Totally fictitious number

A wage earner makes 10 an hour for 20800 a year. The 12:1 is 120 an hour and 249600 a year

Now if this CEO say originally made 10 million a year he takes and puts that money back to increasing hourly wages

now instead the wager earner makes 15 an hour of 31200 and the CEO just went from 249600 to 374400

That is a huge raise in the CEO's pocket and raises livable wages of the wage earner.

So what of the remaining that was taken from the 10 million that the CEO was earning? R&D? Product development? Benefits?

This of course all means nothing because greed is a pathetic vice and exists everywhere.

I would love to see it in the United States but the 1% would never allow it because to them living on less than 10 million a year is appalling!

I have said it millions of times before and will a million times again

If you can't live healthily AND happily on 1 million a year...you're pathetic

I don't care how much I offend the 1%

Foxface

 

Bad for business - if I had a company in Switzerland I would say bye bye and move.
Horrible idea.

Competition drives success, imo.


edit: Y'all need to get over the greed argument. Humans are greedy bastards. That's not going to change any time soon.