For those that work outside with their hands and tools, laboring on this and that, the work that they are accomplishing is pretty much clear and obvious to anyone that is paying attention to them; but we do so find, that the prevalence of what has been designated as blue-collar work by humans is domestically in steep decline, superseded by many a person that utilizes different tools such as a computer, their intelligence, and their knowhow, -- all done typically in a white-collar office environment to accomplish that particular labor. The difference between the two is also the difference between the visibility that the general public sees through the accomplishments of blue-collar work, such as roads, utilities, and goods distribution; whereas, for white-collar work, the general public knows that they are doing something to get paid, but typically don’t know what that works involves or accomplishes.
So too, there seems to be a rather stark difference between those who labor hard in the blue-collar force and what accouterments and material assets that they eventually accumulate, as compared to hi-end white-collar workers, who have numerous examples of those who have a multitude of accouterments and material assets through the work that they do. This leads to not so much an envy issue between one to the other, but more of a fairness issue, in which, vital blue-collar workers don’t seem to appreciate that certain white-collar workers seemingly don’t produce much of anything, but rather they seem to be adept at working the financial angles to make money, or are middlemen that do whatever that they do, or add whatever value that they add, while extracting profit from doing so, in which, the bottom line is that it seems that some of the most financially successful people in America, don’t actually produce or create anything of merit, but instead extract profit and money through their cleverness or adroitness, fair or foul.
It would seem that one way for a nation to bring more fairness to the people, if it was to prioritize such, would be to place those that labor with their hands in a lower tax bracket than those that are either passive investors, such as in stocks or other equities, as well as subjecting those that are able to exploit inefficiencies in various financial markets throughout the world to be in a higher tax bracket, for making their living upon that. In other words, the compensation that people get should reflect how and where that money is made, and those that are producing things that are of utility in one form or another should see their businesses and labor taxed at a lower rate, as compared to those sophisticated entities and people that don’t produce anything, but are skilled at exploiting vulnerabilities that permit them to profit, through the inefficiencies or lack of sophistication that other people and entities are vulnerable to.
Indeed, the fact that hedge fund managers can “earn” billions in one fiscal year should be a clarion call that not all is right, because the money that they have made comes at the expense of someone or some entity which is in the bigger picture, always going to be, unfair, unless dealt with forthrightly by government so as to help level the playing field, through a higher tax rate on them.