16 December 2012

There IS a maximum wage in USA and most countries??!!

Because the physical resources of the planet are limited, the hoarding wealth or using it for speculation rather than productive investment reduces the opportunities of other people and causes poverty. A fundamental principle of Prout is to limit the accumulation of wealth and create a maximum salary that is tied to the minimum wage.

In the United States, all government federal employees have a starting annual salary of US$17,803 (General Schedule grade 1). With education, experience and promotions, the highest pay scale for a president or general or judge is US$179,700 (Senior Executive Service), just ten times higher. Similar pay scales exist for all state and municipal government employees.

By comparison, the lowest salary for a Norwegian government employee in 2010 was twice as high, US$36,000 annually (207,900 kroner, wage level 1), while the highest was US$192,000 (1,106,400 kroner, level 98), only 5.3 times more than the starting salary.

Prout recommends an adequate “living wage” for every worker, and that all earnings in the private sector should also be capped at reasonable maximum levels. The difference between the minimum wage and the maximum salary helps to motivate people to be productive and contribute to society, but they should be fair and appropriate. As the quality of life for everyone increases, the gap will have to be gradually decreased; however, it should never be reduced to zero.


excerpted from After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action by Dada Maheshvarananda (Puerto Rico: Innerworld Publications, 2012).

Source: Wikipedia

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