What we earn and deserve are often difficult and sometimes heated topics of discussion among persons, so much so that these discussions seldom take place in our everyday lives. Earning and deserving are often argued topics in the economic and political spheres, whether these are discussed in the media (news, shows on public events and topics) and in the course of lawmaking and various types of research, to give a few examples. In fact, politics itself is sometimes characterized as the process by which ‘who gets what and where’ or something to that effect. Of course, what one can earn and own, or what accrues to a person or a group is one of the major things that make the world go ‘round. That our present system is believed to be ‘fair’ by some is largely based on what is earned and deserved. It is often the source for political conflict, or more precisely, class struggle, as Marxists would define it. Earning and deserving are certainly not polite topics in everyday conversation. Many workplaces forbid employees to discuss relative pay on pain of termination of employment. Please note the topics of what is earned or deserved, however, is not really the same as discussing pay, come to think of it—we do this more often and it is not always impolite to ask. A sample conversation: “Oh, you work at Teledyne. Pretty good man, great company! Do you mind if I ask what you make there?” But it is totally out of the question to ask: “Do you earn and deserve that $80k you pull down there?” Readers can quickly see the difference. Not that I go around asking such questions—ever—because it would be downright rude. But it is the economist’s and their fellow social scientists job not only to research these matters thoroughly but also to develop—sometimes very elegantly—highly detailed and complex theories of wealth and income distribution. One of these is the Marginal Product Theory of Income Distribution, which is one of the bases of mainstream economics, and which will be discussed in later posts as it relates to this first post.

In this post I will discuss the word and socioeconomic meaning of the word root earn. Earn and deserve are really two different things; a person can deserve something certain material goods without having earned them, e.g., as a child certainly deserves a nice house, school, clothes, shoes, etc.

Once, I drove to a coffee place out in the Valley to sit out some traffic after my shift at work. While stopped at an intersection, a short reverie concluded in the thought that I could never have truly earned the 2009 Nissan Versa 1.8 that I was driving. It is something that I had been mulling over for sometime, nonetheless, and I am pretty well read in economic theory, both orthodox and heterodox, but far more of the latter. Why did I not think that I truly did not earn my own car in the truest sense? One reason, but not a totally satisfactory one, is that it is impossible for me to build one, even in a lifetime. Embodied in my tough little car is a history of automotive development over, say, the last 100 years in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. It is knowledge that a single person is very unlikely to accumulate and put into action in a lifetime. The old adage, “no one person can make a pencil”, a task that involves logging and milling wood, mining graphite, extracting rubber or using some synthetic substitute, assembling, painting, etc., is ever so more true concerning a car. Building a single car requires the coordination of thousands of people in several different countries, not to mention maintenance of factories, etc. Since a socioeconomic system (yes, and markets) is required for me to have ‘earned’ this car, me being here in that very particular time and place that I am has a great deal to do with what I can earn. Many of these things we use and enjoy were unavailable in the past, and will on the other hand, will perhaps be a bit of a joke in the future. Isn’t the mobile phone you may have used in 1998 a bit of a joke and obsolete by today’s standard?

Anyone, even Larry Elder and other cheerleaders of the capitalist system, will agree that we have no choice over when and where we are born. When we are born, however, has a lot to do with what we can earn and the lifestyle we can enjoy or not enjoy. For example, I was born in the 1960s and the material standard of living I can enjoy are a product of the level of development in my lifetime. A person born in the 1860s, however, could never have earned a car, no matter how hard he or she worked, or how brilliant or enterprising they were. I can earn something far more remarkable than our friend from the 1860s and in less time. To a person born in the 1860s my modest Nissan Versa would indeed be a miracle. Yes it is true that we partly have capitalism to thank. Capitalism has led to unprecedented economic development, although it is truer to say that mixed-economy capitalism (major involvement of the state in the economy) has led to unprecedented economic development. The historical period of the mixed economy, the current one that started around 1930 has led to the greatest increase of living standards ever. At least in the developed world. Still, we have to be born and we have absolutely no control over the time and place of our birth. Most of us reading this were born from the early 20^th Century up till the early 21^st. We should also note that where you are born is a crucial factor, too, in what standard of living you would be able to enjoy. Given the choice of where, or what country you would be born in, which would you chose?

No matter how dedicated one is to what one does, no matter how passionate one is about it one is a product of their time and is bound by the level of economic development and production technology and any other resources available in that period.

Now for the future. Barring any kind of global cataclysm, caused by humans, such as a war, or natural causes, such as an asteroid impact, we can expect the standard of living for some people to greatly improve, hopefully throughout the world. If productivity gains are shared among the producers—they are not being shared much now—the average person can expect to have things that will absolutely dazzle us if we were able to see them and use them. Our descendants will hopefully not be working 14-hour days, but possibly and reasonably only about five or six hours a day—the working day might continue to shorten. Let’s say that in the year 2114 the eight-hour day prevails. Our descendants will be able to earn, if not a better income, better things than we enjoy that would again make our tablets, hybrid cars, air conditioning, cameras, lawn mowers, you name it, fill in the blank, seem a bit of a joke, or absolutely quaint. These should be better and more useful products. If mixed economy capitalism and its belief system prevails in the year 2114, then workers, managers, etc., will most certainly hold fast to the notion that they, all by themselves, earned what they own because they ‘worked their fingers to the bone’ or ‘slaved’ to have what they will then have. They will as individuals insist that their wealth and income were all their doing and that they were the ones that made it happen. Others may be more modest, and of course, there will at least be those who are not so egotistical and that acknowledge that without others, they are nothing—unless you consider the Robinson Crusoe alternative. In all likelihood, our descendants will have probably worked fewer hours to enjoy a better standard of living. Will they insist that they have earned what they will have? Given that the world will continue to develop and capitalism or some similar system holds, many of our descendants will assert that they earned what they possess.

None of this so far means that we can’t possibly earn anything. Obviously, some people work harder than others. Some people, a definite minority, I believe, are not ambitious or simply lazy. Others certainly make an honest effort to the genuine best of their abilities and thereby should earn and deserve as anyone else would. Nor is this an argument that everyone should have exactly the same income and wealth no matter their effort or dedication. What I am arguing is that the standard of living we can enjoy is not entirely our own doing, though of course we do have autonomy within economic and legal bounds. I also mean to say that some people, even me at times, need to get over themselves, at least a little bit when it comes to what they earn and deserve. Other reasons for doing so will be explored in future posts.