Maximum Wage essays

Maximum Wage essays The United States has had a minimum wage for over sixty years, which begs the question: if we have a government-imposed income floor, why dont we have an income ceiling? Through the years, the idea of an income ceiling has been brought up several times as the solution to the supposed problem in the U.S. of a very small percentage of the population controlling a very large percentage of the assets of the country. One of the first times this suggestion was made was in conjunction with the proposal of a minimum wage in the early 20th century. During his 1932 campaign for Presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that the economic problem of the post-depression U.S. wasnt an insufficiency of capital, but an insufficient distribution of buying power coupled with an over sufficient speculation in production. In other words, the problem was not that the rich people didnt have enough money to invest, but that no one else had any money to buy (Long 298). A similar theme is found in economist Ravi Batras argument that recessions are caused by unequal distribution of income. Batra also notes that all great depressions have been preceded by great speculative manias triggered by high wealth disparity. Roosevelt, Batra, and many economists have agreed that as rich people become richer and more wealth is controlled by fewer people, more people are left with few or no assets. This fact creates a higher demand for loans, but the people who demand these loans are less credit-worthy, therefore the number of banks with questionable loans rises (Batra 117). The rich people become caught up in a speculative fever, which generates missed opportunities for meaningful economic growth. These two problems combined can have devastating effects on the economy, such as recessions or depressions (Pizzigati 19). Eventually these ideas, coupled with the need for gove...