Common ground

Risk

I am more and more astounded by the complete lack of empathy in our modern, capitalist system. A heated debate on income inequality, and particularly the discrepancy in salaries between CEO's and employees, led to this statement a while ago: "But the CEO's and venture capitalists out there are the ones taking the risks, of course they have to be rewarded accordingly." (This comment from a stock broker, naturally.)

Have we really become so twisted that we believe money is the only thing worth taking risks for? What about the miner in that big conglomerate of yours, Mr. CEO, who daily risks respiratory illness (best case scenario) and death (worst case scenario)? Are you rewarding his risks "accordingly"?

Or the teenager living on the streets who turns to prostitution to make a living. She's risking death and disease everyday.

The single mom working two jobs to support her children? Do we really think the risk she takes in missing being there for her child's first steps or first words are somehow less? What about the risks she is forced to take with her children's safety in having to leave them with strangers to take care of for the day?

It's not risk we want to reward. Secretly, it's status and social paradigms of what is acceptable that we reward. Of course that Ivy League graduate deserves that astounding salary for shifting funds around on the market all day - he studied hard to earn the knowledge about how derivatives work. Cut to the small farmer/builder, toiling in the sun and rain all day, performing back-breaking labour to earn a pittance. Like the knowledge he possesses about growing successful crops or laying a sturdy foundation is somehow less.

I guess the most sickening example of how we reward "risk" in this twisted system, is what's happening in Somalia. Italian conglomerates are dumping their toxic waste in this country, simply to save some money by not disposing of it in the correct way. The Somalis are now suffering serious health problems, and the rise of piracy in this nation has also been linked back to this problem - toxic waste has destroyed the local marine life, leaving fishermen with no other place to go.

But it's that Italian capitalist, who took the risk to establish a business of his own and now drinks his espresso's in designer Armani each morning, who carries the real risk. Right?