RE: Help with a Minimum Wage Model

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 22:48:37 MDT

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    Damien B. writes

    > Lee Corbin re-wrote:
    >
    > >The data in the quote reads
    > > Percentage of
    > > Top Percent All Taxes Paid
    > >
    > > 1% 37%
    > > 5% 56%
    > > 10% 67%
    > > 50% 96%
    >
    > By a strange coincidence, these figures are exactly the same for the
    > proportion of brain surgeons working in the USA!
    >
    > Percentage of
    > Top Percent IQ Brain Surgeons
    > > 1% 37%
    > > 5% 56%
    > > 10% 67%
    > > 50% 96%
    >
    > It's just so unfair to the clever, who get no rest at all, that the
    > less intelligent half of the population should sit around on their
    > duffs drinking beer and cleaning out restrooms and other idleness
    > when they could be doing their share of the brain surgery!

    To most of the people on this list, like you, there is indeed a
    natural elite of the smart. I have no objection to this perception,
    and even share it. But that's not the elite that Michael Dickey
    was writing about, nor I above.

    The "elite" that pays all the tax is mainly that segment of the
    population who engage in the greatest amount of free economic
    transactions with others, and this can include porn artists,
    marijuana growers, and even insurance salesmen. Many of these
    people do not need the narrow technical skills (or, on Bell Curve
    observations, IQ) of brain surgeons, but instead most importantly
    require the perception that if they work hard, and play by the
    rules, then they'll get all that they deserve.

    Every time that we weaken their incentives, as with the unfair
    tax rules above, we place our entire world on a lower exponential
    growth pattern, with severe consequences (in the long run) for
    everyone.

    Lee



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