Sunday, January 23, 2011
Traders Beat on Pay as Gap Survives Crisis
This article explores the income inequality between jobs in the finance world and other types of jobs in the United States. Interestingly enough, the salary of many Wall Street workers has actually increased in the last couple of years. This has caused much public anger because many of these bonuses for employees are still coming out of tax dollars. Meanwhile, jobs such as cancer scientists and neurosurgeons are being paid half as much as workers in the finance world. The basic explanation for this, according to finance companies is that their workers are now under more stress due to the current economy-they are saying that the marginal utility of the worker has gone up due to economic pressures. Whether this is true or not, it appears as though there is a definite trend towards management jobs as opposed to jobs in the life sciences, which now makes sense after seeing the income inequality between the two. This trend may cause problems within the economic system and create discontent within the society.
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4 comments:
It’s interesting to see the inequality between finance jobs and all other jobs within a capitalistic society. When it comes down to it, finance is not needed to survive in nature. Lions don’t need to file tax returns on all the zebra and buffalo they kill each year. And yet in order for a capitalistic economy to grow, money needs to be invested into more money. Jenna illustrates that scientists and doctors are paid half as much as people in finance. You would think that doctors and scientists, whose jobs are meant to benefit human life on a physical plane, would be compensated more than a person in finance whose job benefits humans on a material plane. Human’s propensity to consume at unchecked levels within a capitalistic society allows this type of inequality within jobs to exist.
The wage inequality between traders and workers such as cancer scientists will likely to grow. The demand for traders is still increasing, as the world market keeps on expanding. And it has the potential to grow much bigger than it already is, as freer trade is encouraged. Meanwhile, the market for cancer scientists and neurosurgeons is a shrinking market. As the scientists discover better ways to cure cancer, the demand for workers in their field will decrease.
If this trend grows and the gap of income inequality gets bigger, the government is likely to intervene via the tax system or social welfare system. I don't think the market for cancer scientists and neurosurgeons is shrinking, instead, as the medical science develops and people's overall living standard raises, more people are needed in this area to treat incoming patients.
I also am not worried about the health industry. health services is always listed as a growing industry as the world population ages.
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