Summary

The article discusses income inequality, specifically how CEOs can make 6,565 times more than the median employee in their company, and how this is unfair and obscene.

Abstract

The article begins with an example of a second-grade class project where one child received 6,565 times more rewards than the others, and how this would be seen as unfair by the children. The author then relates this to the current situation in society where CEOs can make 6,565 times more than the median employee in their company. The author argues that this is unfair and obscene, and that it goes against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which recognizes the right to decent work and just and favorable remuneration. The author also suggests that this income inequality is visible and shapes many beliefs and behaviors in society. The author concludes by suggesting that people should care about this issue and take action by voting, writing to elected representatives, and being engaged citizens.

Opinions

The author believes that CEOs making 6,565 times more than the median employee is unfair and obscene.
The author believes that income inequality is visible and shapes many beliefs and behaviors in society.
The author believes that people should care about this issue and take action by voting, writing to elected representatives, and being engaged citizens.
The author suggests that CEOs should receive significantly more than the median employee in their companies, but not 6,565 times more.
The author believes that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to decent work and just and favorable remuneration, and that CEOs making 6,565 times more than the median employee goes against this.

Would You like to Earn 6,565 Times More than Your Neighbor?

In our society, it’s a possibility.

My daughter’s second-grade teacher had his class do a group project this year. The whole class was involved, working as a team, with sponsors, project managers, testers, and every role you can think of.

There was something for each of them; it lasted for the whole school year and ended up with a presentation. The kids received books as awards for a job well done.

Now, imagine this. The kid acting as project sponsor got 6,565 books, and each of the others got only one book.

Sounds ludicrous, right?

I mean, you can’t even read 6,565 books in a lifetime. That would be more than one hundred books per year for sixty-three years, two books per week.

Well, guess what?

We’re living in a society where the CEOs of big companies can make 6,565 times more than the median employee in their company.

One working day of such a CEO would pay for twenty-five years of a median employee’s work. Read that again. One day equals twenty-five years.

Three days equals a lifetime.

Coming back to my daughter’s project example, children, with their acute sense of fairness, would be outraged if one of them got 6,565 times more than the others.

And yet, as a society, we let that happen.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to decent work. Article 23 states, “Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity.”

“Just and favorable,” fairness, these concepts are hard to define. They depend on our beliefs and values. I wouldn’t be able to define these concepts, nor would my daughter or the other participants in her class project.

But, like Justice Potter Stewart, I know what is obscene when I see it. And earning 6,565 times more than the median employee is obscene.

I would hope we all agree. But we don’t since it exists in our society.

In my book, one thousand times more is obscene.

One hundred times more is also obscene. Are you still with me? I might have lost some of you here. Myself, I’m not sure. One hundred times more, maybe that’s acceptable?

I’m not saying that CEOs shouldn’t receive significantly more than the median employee in their companies. It’s a stressful and demanding job to be a leader. There’s no doubt in that.

Why should we care?

We should care because this extremely visible tip of the iceberg (or of the space rocket) shapes many beliefs and behaviors in our society.

We’re social animals. We lead and are led, by example.

If CEOs can make — sorry, that’s not the right word. If CEOs can hoard such amounts of money, then why couldn’t we hoard toilet paper when a pandemic comes? Why couldn’t we keep on our fancy lifestyles when climate catastrophe knocks at our doors?

What can we do?

We can vote. We can write to our elected representatives. We can be engaged citizens, and in this case, we should even be enraged citizens.

When we see obscenity, we, the silent majority, need to act. We cannot let it pass. That’s not who we are.

We the People “want dignity and a sense of self-worth, and a sense of creating and doing something important. That’s who we are.”

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