In a just society, one's income must accord one's productivity. That is, to Each According to Each's Productivity!
A dollar is worth a lot less of what it did a generation ago. Its value fluctuates every day as does the value of gold, silver, and all other forms of money. Subsequently, we become poorer or wealthier, moment to moment, regardless of our productivity.
Unlike dollar or gold whose value are unstable, the human effort can provide a stable measure of value by allowing us to compare one's productivity versus the productivity of everyone else.
The money you pay to buy anything is almost entirely for the wages, salaries, and profits. Consider a wooden table. Its wood is worth pennies before it is cut out of a tree. So is the worth of the iron ore and oil in the ground, one for making nails, the other for running the machines. Largely, it is the human effort in each step of the way that adds up to the price you pay to buy the finished product.
Consider the raw materials used in building a truck used in the transportation of what becomes a table. Again, it is the human effort that adds up to the price of the truck and the cost of transportation. In short, the value of every product is mainly the value of the human efforts used in its manufacture and marketing.
Comparing the value of different products is in essence comparing the value of different grades of human efforts. The human efforts vary in their quality and quantity (qq). Unskilled or raw labor is the lowest, and all other human efforts can be priced accordingly.
One hour of the standard unskilled work (raw labor) can be made the monetary unit (mu), and all other jobs reckoned accordingly. Thus, the wealth produced can be divided justly. For example, the wage for a standard electrician may turn out to be 3 mu/hr, and that of a standard lawyer 10 mu/hr.
Instead of leaving it to the free market, monopoly, strikes, etc. to decide who makes how much, a Pascal formula decides it for everyone on the basis of a "point system" applied to their profession, job description, and productivity. The productivity would be measured according to the quality x quantity (qq) of the work.
Thus, a physician would earn more than a nurse, and a nurse more than a nurse aid, each earning a justified income according to each's productivity in one's profession. And none having the political power or the union power to up their incomes.
After all, increasing one's income reduces the worth of others' income. This way, the society can decide the the range of hourly wages from the unskilled (raw) labor to the highest paid profession. (Would the highest be more than 100 times larger than that of the lowest?)
The determination of the wages would in turn determine the price of the commodities. Of course these can best be had in a non-profit universal economy where each community would own its businesses as they now own non-profit schools and hospitals with open books. This way, everyone would be an employee of the community. The community being the employer, makes everyone also an employer. This would allow the job market to become public, and eradicate unemployment completely.
The human rights must include the right to have a job. Also, education must be geared to the market needs. For example, it makes no sense to train too many professionals in any profession where the jobs are not there, and the graduates end up being jobless or waiting on the tables.
Profit is not an essential element for the success of a business. Today, we have numerous non-profit businesses such as the co-ops, schools, hospitals, etc. The purpose to any commodity must be to serve a consumer need. The best way to cut dishonesty out of any industry is to replace profit motivation with just earning motivation. Dishonesty is profitable, and profit motivation promotes dishonesty.
DATED: 9 October 2000
NOTE: The article above is from "Thus Speaks Zarathustra", a 4-volume book (presently not available) by Behrooz Bassim, MD. This book is a 21st century sequel to Nietzsche's 19th century masterpiece. Other pages from it on the internet are:
Abortion
Artificial
Color & Flavor
Capitalism
Civility
Darwin
Was Right So Was LaMarck
Democracy
or Isocracy
Etymology
of sacred, etc
God,
Who?
Guns
in USA
Homosexuality
Honesty
Me
Intelligence
Monetary,
A Unique Unit, A unique
Particle
Physics, Grand Spectrum
Plight
of the Mice
Politician,
The American
Race
& Class
Sermon
Sham
Justice
Soul
Is Mind
Unidirectional
Competition
Universal
Army
Universal
Language
Zarathustra
CONTACT: bassim@usadatanet.net