Imagine

What would it be like if companies paid their workers as much as they could rather than as little as they can? This is a big step past Capitalism 101 but it is still free market. It just places a higher value on the well-being of the worker than on corporate wealth or some hedge fund manager who contributes nothing. It is also a patriotic position because it values the good of the nation above personal wealth. We tend to think of capitalism as getting the most you can get for as little as you can but there is no rule that mandates that. Valuing the lives and well-being of employees is not socialism in any sense of the word. It is just taking care of your workers in a way that allows them to have meaningful lives free from financial hardship. It is all about your value system. If you think this is crazy then consider this. Dan Price who founded Gravity Systems in Washington recently took a pay cut from $1,000,000 per year to $70,000 per year to help fund a pay raise for his employees that lifted them from about $48,000 per year to $70,000 per year. The boss will be making the same as the employees. Oh, sure. No doubt he has equity in the company and other investments but the gesture he makes is dramatic.

By comparison it is estimated that companies based in the United States are sitting on two trillion dollars in cash that they are desperately holding on to praying for a political climate to emerge that will allow them to keep this money with a lower tax burden. This is money that the free market people tell us is to be used to “create jobs and employ workers.” Right now all it is doing is sitting in money funds that attempt to offset inflation which is very low at this time. If those companies were as patriotic as Mr. Price they could raise the compensation packages for millions of workers who could pay taxes and fund the rebuilding of the infrastructure that buttresses our economy. But that would require thinking more of their workers and the welfare of the United States than the multi-million dollar compensation packages and golden parachutes that have created an oligarchy. An oligarchy that is self perpetuating by its ability to buy elections and lobbyists to direct favorable legislation.

Into this toxic brew comes Dan Price, entrepreneur and millionaire, who shows his appreciation for the workers by putting his money where his mouth is. No claims of being a self made man or libertarian concepts to justify keeping it all. Can anyone argue that it is beneficial to his workers to receive a greater portion of the fruits of their labor? Is there any dispute that the distribution of higher wages will have a stimulative effect on the local economy and help create a secure future for the just recipients of this event? These people talk of starting a family or being able to rent or purchase a place of their own. What they speak of is what we used to call the American Dream, the dream that is dying a slow and painful death.

In truth, these are the things that we speak of when we refer to the greatness of America and the love that people have for their home. So, how can Mr. Dan Price be wrong? Or could we hold him up as a classic example of the good that exists in the hearts of some people? Could he be an example of the selflessness that we so treasure in others but find so rarely in the hearts of the Captains of Finance and Industry? And if we find it so valuable and pleasurable then should we not encourage people to emulate the example for the good of the people and the good of the country? Dan Price could just as easily found a good hedge fund manager that would have used the money to finance arcane instruments that are little more than legalized gambling, making bets on what institution will fail at their endeavor. In the end his money could have been used for no good end or for creation of anything other than more wealth. But it was not used for no good end, it was used for a very excellent end and that was to improve the lives of the people who worked to generate it.

I saw a graphic the other day that showed that there are 80 people, less than 100 people, in the world that control more wealth than the bottom 50% of all humanity on the globe. Pause just a moment to allow that to sink in. That half is about 4 billion people compared to 80. And we now have representatives of those people hard at work to influence legislators to allow them to take more.

I am a capitalist. I believe that allowing people to create and keep the profits from the products of their creation is necessary to motivate economic prosperity. I don't say growth because I don't think that infinite growth is possible. At some point we have to move to sustainability. Capitalism is our economic model but it is far from perfect and that is the role of regulation. Without regulation to benefit the rest of society capitalism is avaricious. There has to be regulation or all of the wealth ends up in the hands of a very few.

I am also a socialist. I firmly believe in the value of social programs such as Medicare, Social Security and, yes, Obamacare. I believe in a tax system that funds the essential services that only government can deliver and make available to all. I believe that here in our country we are all in league together and that means not allowing the least of us to do without.

I imagine that at this time there are millionaires everywhere who are saying, “Oh crap, look what that Dan Price has done. He's going to get everyone stirred up and now they are going to expect us to do be good to our workers and spend our money.”

My Take on this is that we need to put up a monument to this guy. Not only has he shown that private enterprise can have a heart but he showed us where his is. It is also My Take that if we had more Dan Prices that unions would not be necessary.