Is there any spiritual reason for, or value in, a society\u2019s working to reduce the gap between its highest, middle, and lowest income brackets? Can anything be said in favor of a culture that seeks to create mechanisms that militate against an \u201cevery man for himself\/to the winner go the spoils\u201d mentality?<\/p>\n
If a particular society observes this gap to be grower larger, larger, and ever larger, is there anything to be said for doing what it takes to put a stop to that widening, and to even shrinking that chasm, so that a \u201cgood life\u201d may be experienced by all?<\/p>\n
What can be said of a society that creates a bigger and bigger gulf between the rich and the poor — and puts into place mechanisms and laws, choices and decisions that reinforce the notion that everything about this is alright; indeed, that this is the way it should<\/i> be?<\/p>\n
I ask these questions because the other day the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, released statistics showing that the average earning of a CEO in a major company in 2012 was $14.1 million. That\u2019s per year, <\/i>not per lifetime.<\/i> The figure represents a 12.7% increase for the boss over the previous year.<\/p>\n
Average worker salaries, meanwhile, have not increased by 12.7%. Nor even by 6%. Nor even by 2%. Nor, in fact, at all. <\/i><\/p>\n
For most workers in the U.S., wages in 2012 remained at their 2011 levels — and that\u2019s in the<\/i> best-case scenarios<\/i>. Many saw their wages actually fall<\/i>, the EPI study showed.<\/p>\n
And the salaries of their bosses are not the only compensation awarded the folks in the front office. Most also received stock options and other awards, adding more than 50% of their actual cash paycheck to their total income.<\/p>\n
All this is happening because corporate earnings continue to soar. But the workers who make those earnings possible are not reaping their proportionate share of the benefit. The website Business Insider.com<\/i> recently carried the headline:<\/p>\n
Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High,
\nWages Just Hit An All-Time Low<\/b><\/p>\n