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Comment by banned1 | Hacker News Reader

But why would engineers be excluded? Why should a software engineer make $250k+? S/he is just sitting in a chair typing, while the person who cleans the bathroom or make the food in FB' cafeteria gets nothing.

Isn't that unfair?

I personally recommend that we start in small experimental grounds. The idea of starting in the Bay Area is good because engineers are pushing hard workers into poverty, but they they go around with masks hitting people on the head with sticks just because they speak their minds.

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That's just basic supply and demand and it's not unfair. Jobs where demand exceeds supply are paid more and more until people decide to train/retrain for that job.

The unfair part is that the 250k income of the software engineer is increasing demand for housing until it's too expensive for the cleaner although the demand and therefore price are high enough to warrant more housing it's not getting build because of zoning laws.

Of course it is supply and demand, but they are creating these conglomerates that inefficiently aggregate wealth into a few. All of them are part of the problem. Why are only the top 1% ones the problem? Those are the ones who created the system of unfair enrichment, but share unfair gains to a few to keep the machine working.

I mean, why should someone jump into the 1% simply for being engineer #2? Those gains are unfair, and should be taxed 100% to pay for healthcare for all.

Why are only the top 1% ones the problem? Those are the ones who created the system of unfair enrichment

No, they aren't. The system is older than any person alive today. It's older than people. It's a natural law of the universe. It's game theory and natural selection, ultimately, that plays the fundamental role.

That's just basic supply and demand and it's not unfair. Jobs where demand exceeds supply are paid more and more until people decide to train/retrain for that job.

You say that's fair, but someone else could say it is unfair. The supply/demand equation you describe suggests how the salaries get decided upon, but that's not the same thing as fair. That's the system we have, but that doesn't make it automatically fair.

Why should a software engineer make $250k+? S/he is just sitting in a chair typing, while the person who cleans the bathroom or make the food in FB' cafeteria gets nothing.

It isn't about rewards or even about what's fair. It's about the market. You pay an engineer a lot of money because you need an engineer to do the job and the supply of engineers is low. On the other hand, the supply of people who can clean bathrooms is effectively unlimited. There are far more people willing to do the job than there are jobs for them to do.

The market says a CEO deserves $100m per year. Is that wrong?

When you have a company with $20B in profits, a CEO who can increase profits by 0.5% is worth $100M more than one who can't.

> Why should a software engineer make $250k+?

Because people are paid for the value of what they produce, not the effort they spend producing it.

Why should a person make $10m?

If I can produce something that will benefit 10 million people such that they would gladly pay $1 each for it, but I'd just as soon not do it unless I get paid that money, then it's in the interest of those 10 million people that I get $10M for my work.

How much should we tax you, as a 0.1 percenter?

More than 0% and less than 100%.

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