I think re-distribution of wealth is always a thorny subject and any policies would have to be implemented very carefully.

Perhaps the answer is in setting salary/benefit ratio's for owners and executives compared to what the lowest paid employee in the company is. If those ratios are exceeded by the executives, then the company incurs a 'greed tax' or is required by law to raise the minimum wage of their lowest paid employees. For example if there was a 10:1 maximum salary ratio then if the top executive was making $500,000 a year the lowest paid person in the company would get $50,000 a year. Companies that want to only pay their entry level employees $20,000 a year would have a maximum executive cap of $200,000.

If the executives want more, they have to give more to their employees. The executives will cry about this but my God we are talking ten to one!!! If they are not happy with 10 times as money does anyone think they will be happy or worker harder with 20 or even 50 times as much money?

I do think it is important not to just give handouts to people. There are many ways to create a system so that those that are willing to work harder get the rewards.

I'd like to point out however in the case of homeless people that they need substantial mental health counseling and job training before they can every hope to be productive members of society. Some would even need life long care because they are so mentally disturbed from decades on the streets. It's not wrong to help people that simply don't have the capacity to help themselves. Telling them to 'get a job' doesn't even make sense when the people are so emotionally bankrupt.

Then we have the 35 million people who will starve to death this year. Motivation to 'work' is secondary to geting these people food so they don't die. It's hard to have any kind of productivity when millions of people are starving. The 'get a job' mantra of the neo-cons just has no reality in fighting global starvation.

Greg

>Greg:
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>On religion -- since everyone seems to claim to have God on their side, then God is the only one who always wins. It's a scam. I don't buy it.
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>On Europeans -- being one myself, living in the USA, I have to say that it annoys me to no end when I sense the European holier-than-tho -attitude. Europeans basically want the same as the Americans -- food, comfort, power, money, safety... It is a bit too much to hear a "European" criticize USA for imperialism or greed or what-not. What about the Vikings. British Empire. Napoleon. Hitler. Stalin. Ottoman Empire. Spanish Conquistadors. Dutch slave trade. Roman Empire. And on and on and on.
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>On politicians -- there are a few good ones out there, I believe. They are the ones who do not worry about securing their own next term. Easy to identify.
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>On distribution of wealth -- great idea, but doesn't work in practice. See what happened in Russia. I remember standing on the Red Square in 1971. Poor old ladies half frozen, waiting for hours in line for their daily food allocation, watching luxurious Zils and Volgas zooming in and out of the Kreml. Someone had much more than enough, someone had nothing, regardless of the stated ideology of the state. So far, the Scandinavian social democratic system, while not ideal, seems to work the best. But then again, I'm partial... My aging, terminally ill mother is taken care of VERY well by the Finnish medical system. She doesn't have to worry about affording her care or medicine, it is all taken care of for her by the society. She only has to pay what she can reasonably afford, yet the level of care is the same for her as the next person who may be able to afford a lot more or a lot less than she.
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>On good people -- USA, too, is full of them. People who are willing to sacrifice their time and money to help others, work for a better future at home and abroad. But this is not a particularly American trait -- these people are everywhere, they just don't make a whole lot of noise about themselves.
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>IMO the main thing is to not give in to cynicism and despair, but to see and work for the good all around us. It is there, even if it is sometimes hard to see. So call me idealist!
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>Pertti