To get it out the way: “isms” eg: racism classism nepotism and so force are one reason.
There isn’t enough money or enough cushy jobs to give one to everyone, if you want to make sure that your family and friends have less competition you need ways to gate keep.
Sadly it is a lose lose. All the people who want living wages and such- there they are. But it’s math.
One person making $200k is a generally meaningful number. Most people can have a good life on that.
2 people making $100k on a place like NewYork city or Los Angeles is an OK number. You can do pretty well on that- especially if you pool resources.
But to give out 2 jobs at $100k requires one person making $100k less. If you make it 4 jobs, it isn’t 4 people making 200 or even 100 thousand- it’s $50k each. Barely enough to get by in many cities. You’ll probably be living with roommates or commuting 6+ hours a day at $50k.
But it wouldn’t be $100k for two people or $50k for 4. Why? There isn’t enough work for that many. Many of these sweet jobs are a bit of a joke as dude says.
There is often barely enough work to give one person while trying to justify a salary like that.
So if you suddenly have 4 people doing the work of one, each doesn’t get a quarter salary because now it becomes very hard to hide or justify that the job isn’t a joke. What do those 4 people say they do all day when one person can do the work in a day or less already? So the pay gets cut. After the pay gets cut- you probably end up getting more and more added to the job because people paying the checks look at you more and more as having free bandwidth and the tasks as simple so it is “no big deal” to add more work.
So now you’re doing more work, more is expected, and you’re not just making less total, you’re making less for the amount of work that you do.
Three things happen.
1. If you are one of ten or less people in a large company who does a job for $200k you likely work closely with decision makers, C levels, executives, JR. Executives. People know your name and face. You’re “that guy/gal.”
But start doubling and quadrupling and so on the number of workers and the chances of you getting face time with people who make decisions, the chances of them seeing you as a person or getting the chance to personally or professionally be valued first hand by people who make decisions- it goes down.
2. As this is happening you are being devalued. In most countries being a Doctor is tough. Lots of school, lots of money, lots of certifications. A relatively small number of people can be doctors. Doctors are therefore worth a lot generally. They are seen as rare and “special” despite many being quite dumb in generally or even incompetent at their jobs. Despite that fact that many of the things they do could be done by almost anyone with…
.. little training or the rights tools such as sophisticated AI. To be clear- much of what doctors do is very difficult and good doctors exist and can’t simply be replaced like that.
So anyway- if we suddenly replaced the “general care” provider or specialists who don’t do specific skilled tasks with lesser professionals- the pay drops, the number of workers increase, the work decreases for each one, each one is seen as less valuable. If “most people” or “anyone” or “lots of people” can do it- you aren’t very valuable usually.
And doctors have the benefit of life and death stakes but if your work isn’t life or death or directly responsible for large sums of money etc… then not having “the best” and just “good enough” are usually fine. Good enough is usually much cheaper and once they discover “good enough” is good enough- they role is devalued.
3. While this is all happening, as you increase the numbers doing a particular job, the need for team level management tends to rise. You go from reporting to a VP or C level exec etc. to having a director or team lead- whatever your direct report level is- a level of management will be created or levels of management between you and that previous level as your role grows in numbers.
Generally these managers will need to make less than the management above them and are subject to the same “the more there are the less each makes” rule. And you will generally need to make less than the managers above you if your labor isn’t particularly skilled. So now your path to $200k or $250k etc. in your career isn’t just harder because you’re starting from a lower number- it’s harder because before the next logical career step would take you to the level above $200k but now your career next step is generally either to pursue experience and credentials in business/management to make a leap or to
go from $40k to $45k over years.
So you are fighting two forces. The first is the force where those in power want to keep paths open for their friends and loved ones and those with similar values, and the people in those jobs who obviously have a vested interest in keeping their jobs. Think of it like a union.
You have a group of workers who want to keep the money and benefits they have and gain more over to time keep up with growing needs and wants as they age and fight inflation- I’m a system they’ve created that meets this goal but largely does so by making it hard for just anyone to walk in and take their jobs or do it for less.
And this is where things get a bit sad.
There are around 7.5 billion people on earth. That means for every billion dollars you take from say- some wealthy billionaire- you can give each person… let’s make it rough numbers- but you’re talking about like 10 cents for each person on earth.
The loss of a billion dollars would theoretically impact someone like Elon Musk very little in real and practical terms but 10 cents would be even more minimal to most people on earth.
If we took 100 billion- there’d be enough for rough numbers $10 for everyone on earth. Again- meaningful to a small percentage but not likely as transformative in their lives as any single person or small group losing $100 billion.
We can scale that down and it becomes more stark.
People making $200k a year, the amounts get smaller.
If we add up the wealth of the worlds richest people and leave them a small portion- we end up with a not insignificant but also to many not transformative amount in the
Tens of thousands of dollars. To many that would initially be either quite a boon or could literally change their lives, at least temporarily. Because it doesn’t necessarily change circumstances and when we take the mindset that people in the worst economic and developmental conditions- ones who live in places where a couple thousand dollars can be more than a family lives on for a year- would be “saved” we can compare that to economic reality and realize that a sudden influx of personal wealth isn’t likely to alleviate the systemic issues that create those problems and with inflation and other factors you are likely to end up perhaps worse off.
That is its own subject.
But if you doubt the preceding simply look at history. Once upon a time the bar for high paying work was as low as being able to read or write- poorly. Look at where the bar was set, look back to history where simply being intimidating or skilled in violence could easily make you wealthy and powerful on your own.
Look at the modern age. Violence is rarely a profitable long term career option or path to social standing. Reading too old? Computers. Simply being able to set up a local network, a simple local network of a few computers, within a lifetime ago one job could pay $10,000 at a time when a new car was $10,000 or less.
Can you imagine someone paying you $10,000 today to hook a couple computers together?
The knowledge of basic computer usage, even using email- not even talking about programming- it’s so common now that what was once a one person highly paid job is now done by teams who often make relatively little, or is expected for free.
Many jobs won’t send a specialist out to install a program or update something- even minimum wage employees are often expected to have the technical knowledge to do what are seen as simple tasks. And it isn’t just that the knowledge is no longer held by few specialists- it’s that technology has created ways for people with little or no knowledge or skill to do things with ease.
Math was once a bit obscure. Not even that long ago. An employee akin to a cashier was once a specialist- someone who was trusted to keep track of money and exercise honesty. Let’s examine that through the scenarios I presented above.
As more people became able to do math and the process of shop keeping was simplified, cashiers became less valuable. Where shops often had one employee or so, more employees with the same role were added to divide the work.
Improvements to systems like policies as well as technologies for making sure that math was done correctly improved. Systems to help calculate change abd to mitigate or remove the need for cashiers to know or determine fair prices. Price books and eventually registers you could input the type of good and they did the pricing and then databases with scanners that only require you to find a bar code and scan and a machine does the rest.
It made sense economically- to make more money required more workers doing more work. Having more workers makes it harder to find and afford to pay skilled and reliable workers.
Having your retail staff focussed on the everyday simple tasks required to make money takes away the need for them to be relied on for more complex tasks and means they can be paid less but produce more work. You add managers- instead of relying on the employees to ensure tills are correct and accounting is done and inventory is managed- you move those specific tasks to managers and specialists you need fewer of.
This is generally how this works over time. Most or all jobs get “dumbed down” and as we scale up the economy, we need more workers and it becomes impractical to pay those workers higher wages because you need more workers than your profits support at those wages.
To keep status and pay you either need a “hook,” a union, guild, regulatory protection, internal and often informal rules of conduct etc. to preserve your place against the march of time.
Because we keep adding more people. Resources get consumed and can’t be reused, so if the amount of wealth stays “the same” then we have to divide it among a larger amount of people competing for resources that are being reduced while demand for them is increasing.
The world is full of disguised unemployment. The US military is the world’s largest employer. Healthcare, housing, salary, etc. and speak to many folks who have been in the military and hear them talk of people and entire jobs or departments that are “wastes.” Duh. Because not everyone is going to be ok on their own. It’s all disguised unemployment. A way to help legitimize a form of social welfare.
There isn’t enough money or enough cushy jobs to give one to everyone, if you want to make sure that your family and friends have less competition you need ways to gate keep.
Sadly it is a lose lose. All the people who want living wages and such- there they are. But it’s math.
One person making $200k is a generally meaningful number. Most people can have a good life on that.
2 people making $100k on a place like NewYork city or Los Angeles is an OK number. You can do pretty well on that- especially if you pool resources.
But to give out 2 jobs at $100k requires one person making $100k less. If you make it 4 jobs, it isn’t 4 people making 200 or even 100 thousand- it’s $50k each. Barely enough to get by in many cities. You’ll probably be living with roommates or commuting 6+ hours a day at $50k.
There is often barely enough work to give one person while trying to justify a salary like that.
So if you suddenly have 4 people doing the work of one, each doesn’t get a quarter salary because now it becomes very hard to hide or justify that the job isn’t a joke. What do those 4 people say they do all day when one person can do the work in a day or less already? So the pay gets cut. After the pay gets cut- you probably end up getting more and more added to the job because people paying the checks look at you more and more as having free bandwidth and the tasks as simple so it is “no big deal” to add more work.
So now you’re doing more work, more is expected, and you’re not just making less total, you’re making less for the amount of work that you do.
1. If you are one of ten or less people in a large company who does a job for $200k you likely work closely with decision makers, C levels, executives, JR. Executives. People know your name and face. You’re “that guy/gal.”
But start doubling and quadrupling and so on the number of workers and the chances of you getting face time with people who make decisions, the chances of them seeing you as a person or getting the chance to personally or professionally be valued first hand by people who make decisions- it goes down.
2. As this is happening you are being devalued. In most countries being a Doctor is tough. Lots of school, lots of money, lots of certifications. A relatively small number of people can be doctors. Doctors are therefore worth a lot generally. They are seen as rare and “special” despite many being quite dumb in generally or even incompetent at their jobs. Despite that fact that many of the things they do could be done by almost anyone with…
So anyway- if we suddenly replaced the “general care” provider or specialists who don’t do specific skilled tasks with lesser professionals- the pay drops, the number of workers increase, the work decreases for each one, each one is seen as less valuable. If “most people” or “anyone” or “lots of people” can do it- you aren’t very valuable usually.
And doctors have the benefit of life and death stakes but if your work isn’t life or death or directly responsible for large sums of money etc… then not having “the best” and just “good enough” are usually fine. Good enough is usually much cheaper and once they discover “good enough” is good enough- they role is devalued.
Generally these managers will need to make less than the management above them and are subject to the same “the more there are the less each makes” rule. And you will generally need to make less than the managers above you if your labor isn’t particularly skilled. So now your path to $200k or $250k etc. in your career isn’t just harder because you’re starting from a lower number- it’s harder because before the next logical career step would take you to the level above $200k but now your career next step is generally either to pursue experience and credentials in business/management to make a leap or to
So you are fighting two forces. The first is the force where those in power want to keep paths open for their friends and loved ones and those with similar values, and the people in those jobs who obviously have a vested interest in keeping their jobs. Think of it like a union.
You have a group of workers who want to keep the money and benefits they have and gain more over to time keep up with growing needs and wants as they age and fight inflation- I’m a system they’ve created that meets this goal but largely does so by making it hard for just anyone to walk in and take their jobs or do it for less.
There are around 7.5 billion people on earth. That means for every billion dollars you take from say- some wealthy billionaire- you can give each person… let’s make it rough numbers- but you’re talking about like 10 cents for each person on earth.
The loss of a billion dollars would theoretically impact someone like Elon Musk very little in real and practical terms but 10 cents would be even more minimal to most people on earth.
If we took 100 billion- there’d be enough for rough numbers $10 for everyone on earth. Again- meaningful to a small percentage but not likely as transformative in their lives as any single person or small group losing $100 billion.
We can scale that down and it becomes more stark.
People making $200k a year, the amounts get smaller.
If we add up the wealth of the worlds richest people and leave them a small portion- we end up with a not insignificant but also to many not transformative amount in the
But if you doubt the preceding simply look at history. Once upon a time the bar for high paying work was as low as being able to read or write- poorly. Look at where the bar was set, look back to history where simply being intimidating or skilled in violence could easily make you wealthy and powerful on your own.
Look at the modern age. Violence is rarely a profitable long term career option or path to social standing. Reading too old? Computers. Simply being able to set up a local network, a simple local network of a few computers, within a lifetime ago one job could pay $10,000 at a time when a new car was $10,000 or less.
Can you imagine someone paying you $10,000 today to hook a couple computers together?
Many jobs won’t send a specialist out to install a program or update something- even minimum wage employees are often expected to have the technical knowledge to do what are seen as simple tasks. And it isn’t just that the knowledge is no longer held by few specialists- it’s that technology has created ways for people with little or no knowledge or skill to do things with ease.
As more people became able to do math and the process of shop keeping was simplified, cashiers became less valuable. Where shops often had one employee or so, more employees with the same role were added to divide the work.
Improvements to systems like policies as well as technologies for making sure that math was done correctly improved. Systems to help calculate change abd to mitigate or remove the need for cashiers to know or determine fair prices. Price books and eventually registers you could input the type of good and they did the pricing and then databases with scanners that only require you to find a bar code and scan and a machine does the rest.
Having your retail staff focussed on the everyday simple tasks required to make money takes away the need for them to be relied on for more complex tasks and means they can be paid less but produce more work. You add managers- instead of relying on the employees to ensure tills are correct and accounting is done and inventory is managed- you move those specific tasks to managers and specialists you need fewer of.
To keep status and pay you either need a “hook,” a union, guild, regulatory protection, internal and often informal rules of conduct etc. to preserve your place against the march of time.