Quote from hels02:
RS, I am quite familiar with Adam Smith. I also used to be quite a fan of Ayn Rand and her seminal, but boring as hell book, 'Atlas Shrugged'. And it's all very logical. I am not a socialist or a communist, nor do I advocate either. They don't work, you cannot expect everyone to work equally hard and earn equal treatment or rewards, at the risk of stymieing innovation.
There's a flip side to this however. So rather than put it to you as a statement, how about you let me know what you think of this scenario.
You live in a town that has only 1 factory and place of employment. You have never left this town, and have no means of traveling elsewhere to find work. From everything you have read and heard, it's even worse elsewhere. This factory employs everyone who's employed in town, and in order to live you have to work there. There are no regulations for employment, the factory can pay whatever it likes.
You make widgets all day long. Your widgets sell for $1, but you are paid $.10. You don't have a choice, and if you don't work there, there is no where else for you to go because you cannot save enough to leave.
However, what you earn for widgets does not earn you enough to pay for medical care, food and housing, let alone clothes or transportation.
You cannot make widgets on your own, neither you nor the other factory workers can afford the machinery to make the widgets, and as no one has any savings who works there, you are at the mercy of the factory owner, who every year makes increasing profits because your widgets make him a lot of money.
What would you do?