As many know, Ive been thinking about income distribution, meritocracy, procedural justice, mobility, and political stability for some time... Heres an idea to play with. Maybe some professions in the US have high average incomes and wealth (two different things, actually) BECAUSE so much talent goes into those professions. Ive always thought too much talent goes into medicine in this country. Love talented docs and great research, but lets face it, lots of times the outcomes are determined by other factors. Like how good the hospital is. Other countries have much more mediocre talents going into medicine. Maybe thats part of the lower cost. Now, there are all sorts of different talents of course. But if some of the mindset of Wall Street, where we also send too much talent, perhaps, were put into engineering. Or if some engineering talent went into journalism. Or if more entertainers really studied politics when they are young. Im not just suggesting cross-pollenation. Im saying there are multi-talented people: mature, healthy, rational, inquiring, well-informed, well-resourced, thoughtful, caring, self-aware, driven, disciplined, initiative-taking, careful, sociable, presentable, reasonably competitive and team-oriented, task-oriented, detail-oriented, ETHICAL people (think of the kind of people Punahou would give a scholarship to), who are going to succeed, and frequently garner high wages and amass wealth and power, in ANY profession. When there is a concentration of national talent in one place, there is income inequality EVEN if the society values other pursuits and is able to express that valuation through monetary rewards. And then there is the problem of non-monetary rewards, which any teacher, preacher, fireman, mother, and armed serviceman knows about. And then there is the risk-driven economy, the nonlinear political economy, wealth multipliers -- exponentiators, and the political economy of influence. All sorts of things drive wealth concentration. But if the idea holds water, then the prescriptions would be: mothers, stop wishing your kids become doctors and lawyers; Wall Streeters, consider applying your talents to environmental causes and city planning; Ivy leaguers, join the army; high school dramatists, take your civics and economics and law courses seriously; doctors, retire early and take up carpentry and masonry, and child development and dog walking (youll probably enjoy all of those a LOT); lawyers, buy a winery and join a symphony; professors, stop being putzes and try to do something useful every once in a while! Before you can argue for income inequality reduction, maybe you first have to have talent redistribution. And for gods sake, stop measuring success by measuring bank accounts.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 05:19:12 +0000
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