Seattle
CEO Dan Price (who announced a $70k min wage for his employees) and Mr. Trudeau have much in
common: they both believe in a fairer world.
Like Price, Trudeau wants to make fairness a theme of his endeavors. Let’s take a peek at Price's experiment to see
how fairness is working out.
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| Let’s be fair and pay everyone the same!! (Resounding cheers!) |
Here are
the highlights: the CEO took over a 90% pay cut and is under duress to make ends meet personally. Most of the profits
($2.2 million from last year) were spent on the first phase of increasing wages.
Reported ‘unintended
consequences’ (that were entirely predictable to any sensible individual) are: people
feel they are not earning their money as they are being ‘overpaid’; which is
putting stress on them. Others allegedly
are not working hard because they make so much money they have no incentive to
advance. People are also complaining of
income gaps citing their skills and contributions are higher than other people’s…yet
the pay remains even. Finally, Mr. Price’s brother is suing for not
respecting his minority rights within the company.
As I explain
to my children; there are many aspects of life that are not fair. Socially engineering your fairness doctrine
(in this case, private) results in other aspects of unfairness…“Now the people who were just clocking
in and out were making the same as me,” he complained. “It shackles high
performers to less motivated team members.”
My grave
concern with Mr. Trudeau is he views fairness in the same way Mr. Price does…with
one caveat: Mr. Trudeau wants to explore this notion with your money…and my
money as a politician! This “central
planning” agenda is far more irrational, disturbing then his views on asking
students to re-think elements as basic as space and time because it deals
with our money and our kids future and we are not talking about $2.2million either.
Defining
fairness as ‘everyone gets the same result’ is a devastating approach to a real
problem; meeting people’s needs. Constraining
free markets with labor laws, endless regulations and burdensome taxes is the
problem that will hurt the middle and lower class as manipulation is a poor form
of control.
A free
market based on personal freedoms and liberty remains the only hope for a
stronger middle class. Incentive to work, gaining skills and advancing based on
increased productivity are at the core of a strong economy and weathering
future recessions. Compassion from our free will remains the most effective way
to help those less fortunate or those lacking higher value skills that command
higher rates of pay.
Given Mr.
Trudeau wants us to rethink our capitalist system, I would argue we need to seriously
constrain the government’s ability to interfere in choices the free market makes
and then will see a blossoming of the middle class and hope for lower income Canadians. Mr. Price gives us a really neat peak into
Turdeau’s “space and time” world where fairness is at the core. Benevolence does not generate profits…increased
productivity does. Fairness under the guise of benevolence is the enemy of
learning advancing and increased productivity.
I propose
Mr. Trudeau should take his money and invest it in his own company with his
perfect fairness doctrine controlling how things should run. After he models the success of this operation…THEN
(and only then) can he make an argument to all Canadians about fairness. Until then, look to Mr. Price and decide for yourself if that’s what
you want Canada to look like.
Mr.
Trudeau, I have re-thought elements as basic as space and time. Mr. Price is losing space and time is running
out: fairness is the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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| Watch out for fairness. |
