Equal Wages

Po Everyone should be paid the same hourly rate.
Yellow Hat for now only thanks. I’ll start

hY People would migrate to jobs on the basis of enjoyment not financial reward
hY Tax bodies – IRS etc – could more or less be abolished
hY Burglaries, shoplifting, looting and riots would decline
hY Greed may not be eliminated, but would surely be ameliorated
hY Social divisions may start to heal
hY The money saved on protecting the rich could be used for other things
hY We could use the green hat for developing different models of reward and self-esteem.

Tags: greed, wages

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Comment by Sinclair McLay on October 26, 2011 at 21:15: Excellent link Adonis – thank you.
Couple of things stood out for me – the social mobility index and inclusion of psychological factors – like status. I know these drill down studies are open to interpretation but seemed pretty ‘Case Closed ‘ to me…UK, US, Portugal shame on us..Japan, Scandanavia …hats off..

Comment by Asa Jomard on October 13, 2011 at 18:24: This might add something to the discussion. I would take the money, would you?

http://bigthink.com/ideas/40634?utm_source=Daily+Ideafeed+Newslette...

Comment by Sinclair McLay on October 3, 2011 at 17:37: No problem Luis – and thank you very much for your kind words…
I was going to do a Blue Hat on process…and neither have I forgotten…
However may be more relevant to post in your new developing Procedures blog, so I shall just nip across there!

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 29, 2011 at 15:51: Blue Hat
hH Slight change of plan. Going to speed things up! Tried leaving hats open for a few days – or one day at a time – but seeing as process was designed to be quite brisk going to try running three hats together – Blue, Black and Green. This will hopefully help working out best way to do Six Hats in online forum form in future

hH Perhaps we should do Blue Hat on process alone at end ?

hH We should then agree best way forward to work on another idea!

hH Anyone who has been following thread, or just discovered it please join in!

Black Hat
hB Without numbers no party will include this as a policy and no-one will vote for it. What would the equal rate be? How would it be arrived at? Is it GDP divided by number of workers etc ? Too nebulous
hB Transition. How do you go from one system to another? Would need road map
hB The status quo – as always – would be fiercely – and brilliantly -defended. Newspapers and other vested interests would have a field day with red button concepts like ‘freedom’ ‘human nature’ etc
hB The current paradigm of infinite growth and ‘your children will be better off than you’ still holds in the minds of many.
hB We are just out of the trees and not evolved enough for such co-operative concepts!

Green Hat
hG Perhaps wage levels should not be decided by the ‘market’ or ‘the state’. Perhaps they should be voted upon by people. Dr de Bono once mentioned the possibility remunerating by contribution. This might help to achieve that – people vote for wage levels on the basis of contribution – they who people think contribute the most get paid the most
hG To get over the fear of transition maybe introduce the concept. ‘For now everyone keeps what they have’ – less resistance from the better off.
hG If an economic model managed to suggest that more people would get more money for less hours then this may attract votes.
hG Taxation is the default tool in redistribution – what new simpler forms of taxation could we dream up? Sales tax seems a possible way forward – the more you spend the more you pay. How about a point of sale system which utilized tax codes on credit cards so that when a high income consumer bought something it would immediately discount the product for those less well off. Or divert money immediately to some agreed source.
hG Have been requested to mark up the notion that there are other means of encouraging self-esteem than money alone – go for it!

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 28, 2011 at 16:02: Let's try red Hat now - also try time limits - ie in 24hrs it will be Blue. We should definitely do a review after exercise is finished to see how process can be improved, use of other tools, timing etc. Anyway time to see Red!
hR Would the world be a better place if everyone received the same level of pay ? Undoubtedly, in many ways.

Is there any chance of this happening soon? Not a snowballs chance in hell.

If we are concerned with ‘what can be’ rather than ‘’what is’ then is this something – amongst many other things – worth considering. Absolutely.

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 28, 2011 at 11:37: Luis I like your thoughts on process. From memory I don't think this group has ever completed a six hats - Franis or Kim or Phil have been here longer and will correct me if I am wrong. This is for understandable reasons - time zones, other commitments etc. Plus as you say the Six Hats itself seems - and I am no expert -to have been designed for people working in the same room. So if we do manage to do some work - and gain tangible benefit - from working out how to do something like this online that will be very fruitful. Plus it may help with some of the principles for the still-nascent Creative Team. So yes this is very important I think - how to work together in an online forum.
Again I am busy today and will not get the chance to read your pdf till tonight. However to keep things moving on the subject at hand, Kim has just done a Red Hat - why don't we do Red Hat now on 'Equal Wages' ?
I will do mine tonight - sorry must rush!

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 27, 2011 at 14:25: Personally I was only referring to financial income. But I'm going to have to defer to others on that one - have to go out to work!
Perhaps for the sake of simplicity we should stick to original - hourly rate for hours worked.
So that would be Universal Equal Pay (UEP) !

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 27, 2011 at 14:04: Yes it was ! But we could go the whole hog and call it income!

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 27, 2011 at 13:38: "Working through the Hats on the PO Everyone should be paid the same hourly rate.".
The tangible end product then will be a long thread containing lots of ideas on each of the 6 Hats.
The intangible product will be whatever good benefit the participants can get from doing the process.”
Yep works for me Luis.

These are a couple of articles which I came across after doing a bit of cursory research which examine a related concept – UBI (Universal Basic Income) and UMI (Universal Minimum Income) which both propose – from different political directions –in their highest form - the idea that everyone on the planet – just by virtue of being alive – gets paid a Living Wage or Citizens Income. Both presume that after the pie is so divided pursuit of wealth in more or less the same way as we are accustomed to now is allowed/encouraged. Personally I don’t have much of a problem with this approach and admit to a personal preference for it before making this post. However in the spirit of Luis statement above I think that we should continue with our project and see where it leads us.
Without getting too technical or philosophical the phrase to look out for is ‘equality of outcomes’ And yes you will come across Popper and Stalin!
hW The suggested technical name for ‘equal wages’ is ‘Universal Equal Income’ or UEI – bit clumsy and obviously a proto-title.
Here are the links
http://bostonreview.net/BR25.5/vanparijs.html
http://davidpidsley.com/blog/2011/2/7/simplifying-welfare-provision...

Comment by Sinclair McLay on September 26, 2011 at 23:03: No problem Luis. Speaking to a friend one night and we were speaking about wages – and I can’t remember the initial question – but he replied that he thought everyone should be paid the same. I looked him in the eye and said “Seriously?” because to me it seemed a risible notion and he looked me in the eye and said “yes”. So I actually considered the idea and in these times it seemed, elegant, simple and fair – instead of risible. So because I am a member of this society I always think – whenever I hear a new idea – shall I put it up for consideration? And I did – and now its become more trouble than its worth ! (Joke)
Now of course this is not a new idea – but it falls into that category of what often happens to ideas – getting dismissed out of hand – which I find an interesting area. Getting buried. And encrusted. Probably because its linked to Marx.
As far as personal values go – do I believe the distribution of wealth is unfair? Yes. Is greed out of check. Yep. Is it worth doing a bit of thinking to help redress this. Absolutely. Am I a Marxist ? No. Should the process I initiated have been a lot quicker. Of course, my fault. But then I’m not a trainer and thought it might be a good exercise. Theres no way I would expect anyone to spend their valuable time on something that will probably turn out to be unworkable nonsense. I just thought there might be something of value in there.

Anyway as far as clarifications. Everyone means everyone. Regardless. Global. Equalization of wages and salaries across all industries, skill sets and borders!