tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869107041291322985.post7411618210699653899..comments2015-10-27T22:26:10.832-07:00Comments on J.T. Storey's Official Blog: Anna Karenina, Morality, and the American EconomyJ T Storeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01867585479362487067noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869107041291322985.post-82774632828589523302010-10-26T17:19:13.570-07:002010-10-26T17:19:13.570-07:00Given the depth of his religious feelings, interes...Given the depth of his religious feelings, interesting that to my knowledge L. Tolstoy didn't ever go POV on a priest--did he?Davis Chinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16168954208679712542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869107041291322985.post-47878585258497762872010-10-16T19:55:16.638-07:002010-10-16T19:55:16.638-07:00Have to love any post tagged with Lev Tolstoy, Fic...Have to love any post tagged with Lev Tolstoy, Fictional Wealth and Louis Vuitton!<br />Very interesting stuff. I wanted to offer more of a response, but I've already sat on my hands for almost two weeks, so for now I'll just go on record as saying I love that you're working to weave these threads together. (And I love the way you've laid-out the article!)Davis Chinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16168954208679712542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869107041291322985.post-38911589363780019532010-10-03T22:00:07.296-07:002010-10-03T22:00:07.296-07:00Thanks Scott! Great comment.
Yes, I very much ag...Thanks Scott! Great comment.<br /><br />Yes, I very much agree supply and demand are in proportion to your salary - that what you do is relatively proximate to what you receive in return. <br /><br />But I think there is, in general, a point where this 'supply and demand' model for salaries begins to break down, because the very top salaries in this country are, in my mind, very absurd - far more than any individual or family would ever need. <br /><br />The balance of wealth has been creeping out of proportion for the last 30-40 years (top 1%: 9% of wealth in 70s, 23.5% in 2007!). This simply has to change if our society is to prevail. <br /><br />I'm open to ideas as to how.<br /><br />Anyhow, thanks again for the comment! <br />- JeffJ T Storeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01867585479362487067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869107041291322985.post-63092289875875358472010-09-30T16:39:18.899-07:002010-09-30T16:39:18.899-07:00I admire the complexity and moral depth of your an...I admire the complexity and moral depth of your analysis, even as I don't agree with all of it. But how many of the people I know can take a piece of historical literature and use it as a prism through which we can peel apart the layers of the philosophy of the underlying characters, which is to say, the society in which they lived? Not many, I say.<br /><br />Still, I think there are two distinct phenomena here, and they ought to be treated separately. Illegal, or legal but "predatory" behavior, relies on the incomplete knowledge of the consumer for its success. The consumer may have been <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/09/pom-wonderful-juice-health-claims-arent-so-wonderful/63704/" rel="nofollow">actively misled</a>, or is simply participating in a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/07/washington-mutual-closer-markets-equity-cx_cg_1107markets44.html" rel="nofollow">market of such complexity</a> that he can be assumed to be ill-informed. You know what they say: if you're sitting at a poker table, and you don't know who the sucker is--it's <b>you</b>.<br /><br />On the other hand, there is the matter of absurdly inflated salaries. In and of themselves, I believe salaries today generally <b>are</b> a result of supply and demand, though the market for talent is necessarily inefficient. Ayn Rand said, "Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason," and we can see in these examples that she is both right and wrong. Surely the negative amortization loan was a product aimed directly at man's stupidity; on the other hand, if my employer thought he could get when I'm providing him for less, he would probably do so. As he has not, I conclude that supply and demand are in at least partial control of my salary.<br /><br />OK, I've bored myself with my own comments now.<br /><br />Bottom line: great blog, Jeff!E. Scott Menterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com