Should The US Consider A 'Maximum Wage' Ratio?

Income disparity is destroying our democracy and our nation. I'm not going to go into how the ratio of top income to bottom income earners has drastically changed since 1950. We all know that.

But now there is a nascent movement afoot to change this. The Swiss are considering action. They are considering capping executive pay at 12 times what the lowest-paid worker at a company makes and they are voting on it this Sunday.

But in America we have a mythology of no limits. No limits to the maximum someone can earn. But we have overlooked that to deliver that myth there must also be no limits to the minimum someone can earn.

I have always said that a nation's mythology will determine it's success or failure and that the inability to change or alter a mythology in the face of failure will guarantee that failure. Doubling down does not work.

In 1950 the average ratio was approximately 9 to 1. Now the average ratio of earnings in America is 354 to 1. For every dollar that the lowest paid worker in America gets the highest paid gets $354. That's the average. We were wildly successful as a nation in 1950. Now, not so much. How can we think there is not a connection here? The greatest disparity is found at J.C. Penny, a failing company. The ratio there is 1795 to 1. Why is the failing CEO of a failing J.C. Penny making 1795 times more than a successful employee at the company?

I think that it is high-time that we answered that question. Maybe it's time to take our heads out of the sand in this country and change our mythology of success before it causes the ultimate failure: national collapse.

Here's are some links to the story about what the Swiss are up to.

NPR story. CNN story. Bloomberg News story.