Frank's Musings

We get it. Those of us who try to discover and determine what needs to be done depend on others to get it done.  We accomplish things better when we work together.  In a liberal democracy, both halves of the team must respect the other. 

Our system has been built on rewarding the conceptualizers a lot better than the doers.  It has congratulated those who have been able to amass great wealth for their occasional donations to improve the welfare of those who have earned less or even nothing for their contribution to global progress—actually producing the physical artifacts of society and its essential procedures.   

It is this latter sector of society at whom the eleemosynary efforts of society’s leaders are supposedly targeted.  However, members of the workers group often know better how they could benefit from a portion of the excess funds in the accounts of their leaders than administrators of those funds do themselves. 

For this reason, monetary rewards to society’s leaders should be tempered in order better to balance the levels of compensation to both human components of the economy.  Whereas the cost of satisfying the aspirations of each group may differ substantially, there is little justification for taking responsibility for providing those joys of life away from the people who would receive them.   Part of those joys--medical, entertainment, personal possessions, etc.--comes from constituting their makeup.  Certainly, the truly destitute should be cared for through charity; but society’s doers must be rewarded commensurate with the crucial role they play in the advancement of the economy, and not with charity.

Reducing the large gap between compensation levels in a liberal  democratic economic system will inevitably diminish resentment of the “haves” by the “have-nots.”  The recent political upheavals in the U.S., including an attempt at violent insurrection, may be obviated if the leadership segment of the country were to recognize its interest in promoting the common happiness of the entire society. This will begin with a willingness to revise the leaders’ feelings of satisfaction from recognition by their peers for contributing to the general welfare instead of for winning the race to billionairedom. That will require new leadership with a compelling message for both the conceptualizers and the doers.