A Dirty Hippie

Now, I’ve never been one to be very motivated in a job where the person sitting at the top makes
500 times what I make.  And I’ve actually been fairly lucky to have not had THAT experience.  But,
sadly, that’s the common reality today.  (Yes, the average CEO is currently making 500 times the
salary that the average worker is.)  So now that my “job” is to remodel and improve my house, that
motivation has emerged.  Even more so the motivation of FINALLY being through with it has definitely brought inspiration.  So much inspiration that I actually ended up using up more than half of an 18lb. bag of joint compound in one day.  I DO want this done.

Now think of what could be accomplished through that sort of motivation in the workplace.
Motivation of a job well done.  Motivation where your efforts are justly rewarding through the
results you achieve.  Wouldn’t that be a powerful thing?  Instead, here in America, reward ends
up being tied to the fact of being in the right place at the right town, often through the fact
of knowing the right people.  It’s a “good ol’ boys” network to the extreme.  (Simply put some
time into inspecting the people sitting on the board of directors of most companies.)  The
result of which is what we have today; undeserving CEOs making 500 times the salary of deserving
workers.  Workers who without there would be no company on which to suck off the teat.

Which brings me to a useful observation I’ve gained via the work that I’ve done.  And this is
one of being an engineer, the one who creates that product which a company is able to sell.
Obviously, without a product a company wouldn’t exist.  And at the same time, without someone
to sell that product a company wouldn’t have any success.  And without someone to put that
product together on the assembly line a company also wouldn’t have success.  And without people
to oversee and guide things that company would likely flounder.  There’s actually a fair amount
involved to bring success.

But that success depends on the efforts of a range of people.  As an engineer there’s a pretty
substantial amount of knowledge that I’ve had to gain to be able to create a given product.
And that a salesperson, who’s skillset is primrily in being able to say the right things in
order to sell the product to someone, ends up earning the same or more isn’t very motivating.
And sometimes that ability to convince isn’t even necessary as a customer may already be sold.
On the assembly line, the knowledge necessary to do the job is actually on a par with the
salesperson.  They likely COULD be salespeople if they had that ability to influence.  And
yet the difference in pay is likely pretty astounding.  With a CEO, the skills needed are
fairly substantial.  A CEO needs to have the ability to see the big picture and to guide a
company in the right direction.  But how much more intelligent and knowledgable must a CEO
be than the other people?  And is the difference on a par to being compensated 500 times
that of an average worker.  (Is it really that difficult to come up with an answer to that?)

Which brings me back to the motivation of finally completing a remodel of a house.  It’s
a simple one.  And it’s one where there is no inequity.  The effort put in is directly
rewarded through the completion of a task and the fact of moving that much closer to
completion.  If capitalism only had that much equality I can only wonder what could be
accomplished.