Executive Compensation, China, And The Devaluing Of Labor

 A wealthy man explained decades ago why it was necessary for him to have the products he manufactured made in China. It is capitalism, he explained, and his costs had to be kept down in order to be competitive. Capitalism by relying on communism. 

While the so called capitalists and entrepreneurs made fortunes relying on the cheap labor, low environmental and work safety standards that a police state provides, justifying it as necessary to be competitive, they never considered why labor, safety and environmental standards had to be lowered but not their compensation. They never considered what it meant to transfer a powerful nation's technology and manufacturing to a police state. They never considered the environmental cost. They never considered the harm caused by low safety standards. They never considered what it means to enrich a police state and help make it powerful.  They never considered the enormous financial cost that would later be paid by having to compete with a militarized police state flexing its military might and muscle.  

The executive class of the United States wants cheap labor for manufacturing, and cheap labor for services within the United States. The mere suggestion that their exorbitant salaries and compensations are out of control meets with fierce resistance. They act as if they are irreplaceable, while labor is dispensable. Some even believe the myths about their exaggerated importance. They believe they are entitled to lavish rewards by virtue of their place in life. 

The devaluing of labor, along with a predatory executive class that takes whatever it can get with no one in their way to say no, has led the United States to become a weakened nation with a diminishing middle class. China has risen, and it is not to the benefit of freedom. Nations of pampered kings and queens with peons at their service does not bode well for a prosperous, democratic future.