Sir Xsarus wrote:
Quote:
The same logic that says that it's somehow unfair to fine someone the same dollar amount if he earns less money leads one to argue that someone should get paid more money, despite the fact that the economy doesn't value his labor more.
Because reward is the flip side of deterrent. The cost of the deterrent should be based on the cost the action we're trying to deter causes to the rest of us. In the same way that the wages one earns should be based on the value the action that earned the wages provides for the rest of us. Those are equivalent concepts. If you argue that fines should be based instead on the relative impact the fine has on the person who suffers it, then the equivalent argument would be that wages should be based on the relative impact the wages have to the person who earns it. Of course, in the case of wages, since we're all benefited equally by having more money, the result would be that all labor should be rewarded equally. Which is an argument some have made (maybe not taken to the extreme position, but the whole "all jobs should pay a living wage" argument is based on this concept.
It's about how one views money relative to other actions. And I've observed people tend to fall into one of two categories:
1. Those who disconnect dollars from the weight of our actions on others, and instead look at them only in terms of how they benefit/harm those who earn/lose them.
2. Those who believe dollars are a measure of the weight of our actions on others and should always be viewed this way, and that how the dollars benefit or harm us is irrelevant.
So yeah. The same mindset that says that fines should vary based on how much money someone has will also tend to support the idea that wages should be based on how much someone "needs" the money. Commonly this manifests as a dismissal of the harm of taxes on those past a certain income range (like what we're talking about here). Heck, the fact that people went to the fines idea should show you that these are connected concepts.
It represents the idea that dollars are about punishing or rewarding the person. But that's not it. They should be about the value (positive or negative) the rest of us place on the actions of that person. Otherwise, the very concept of a dollar kinda loses meaning. It literally is what a dollar *is*.