Wage karma
People pay taxes. Those taxes pay wages of people who provide services. Those wages (also taxed) buy groceries, pay mortgages, loans, buy cars, hire snow shovellers. Their deferred wages (aka pensions) fuel Bay Street.
People need to be hired to work in those banks, stores, investment firms, lanscaping companies etc. They pay taxes and in turn those taxes pay wages, and so on.
So why does the barber resent working class people who make a decent wage?
Yeah they make a good wage, but it’s their hair he’s cutting, who’re paying his rent and putting his kids through college.
There aren’t enough rich people around to buy all the stuff we make. Well-paid working people fill that void. They’re the economic buffer that keeps a local economy together even when a local employer (like, say Nortel) collapses.
If you’re a working stiff and resent others who do the same job for more because they’re in a union, I have a simple solution.
If you’re an investment banker who just hates the fact that people who do physical labour earn money beyond what you feel is “their station”, be careful what you wish for.
What goes around, comes around.
