Monday, December 2, 2013

Socialists Fail to Bell the 'Fat Cat'

On Nov. 24th Switzerland held a referendum on a proposal by David Roth, the president of Switzerland's Young Socialists and the referendum's leading sponsor. 

The proposal was to limit the pay of the top executives by a ratio of 1:12, that in other words means that the CEO’s pay cannot be more than 12 times of that of the lowest paid worker in the company.

The voters rejected the proposal comprehensively. The votes against were roughly 65%. At a time when Obama is bent on turning America into socialist and make entitlements a way of life, thankfully Europe or at least certain sections of Europe is rejecting the socialists theory that makes people believe that ‘someone’ else can take care of them better than they themselves; and that 'someone' is better than they themselves when it comes to decisions or choices that affect their lives.

As absurd as this proposal and the reasons behind this proposal may have been, the development still assumes a lot of significance both for Europe and  for the rest of the world. The ground-breaking referendum assumes significance as such proposal if accepted will not only have a ripple effect on everyone’s compensation and potential to earn (when you have a ratio for the CEO, you have some ratios for everyone in the (ladder), it would have seriously hampered performance, crimped competitiveness and damaged the economy.

The 1:12 or a move to cap "fat cat" pay is like going to a class and saying that the best a student can do in the class is only going to be ‘x’ times better than the others and not what he/she can possibly achieve. The possibility of providing equal opportunities to perform is acceptable; but the problem with socialists is that they try to assure equal outcomes to everyone.

That’s penalizing the ones who go the ‘extra’ mile, who try that ‘extra’ bit more and who out-perform others to rise and lead; and rewarding ‘mediocrity’.

Roth appeared less gracious even in defeat as he reportedly blamed ‘scare tactics’ by the companies to impress upon their employees to vote ‘against’. It is hard to imagine that in a country-wide referendum and in secret ballot system, employees would vote with fear than with their own judgement. Anyways people have chosen their ‘right’ over Roth’s accused ‘wrong'.

Time for Rot-h and his likes to take a walk, may be with their cats.


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