I sometimes think on the subject of salaries, IOW what people are given to live on. I think everyone should always have enough. And I would consider that middle class. I think that is what people like Martin Luther King, Jr. mean when they say we should have universal basic income. The only problem with that system would be if people chose not to work. I always thought that wouldn't happen. But you know. During the COVID crisis in 2020, some Americans were given extra unemployment benefits and rent assistance by the U.S. government with its Assistance for American Families and Workers program. And some Americans just refused to ever work again. But I think the solution to that would just be you require at least some work from able-bodied people. Famous American behaviorist B. F. Skinner (1904-90) said something interesting about salaries. I'm not making this up. He was speaking about positive and negative reinforcement. But I think he was talking kind of philosophically too. He said why should billionaires make all the money, while the lowest worker, working the longest hours under the worst conditions, makes the least. He said that the lowest workers should be the real billionaires therefore. That's an interesting way to look at it. Of course in the Star Trek universe, money doesn't exist. People live to better themselves. And they do what is required of them. Usually whatever job they enjoy. Whether this is capitalism or communism, the show has always maintained neither. Although in the original series they used to suggest maybe it was a little of each.
Try working a straight commission job....I'll take less money at a salary. Awful. Tracking every little thing, people always trying to screw you out of what you earn...or steal it...or like my boss, just not feel like paying you for what you earn - what are you going to do about it? Quit? Yes.
I grew up in Wisconsin. My father was a salesman for an old money building material company and his territory was the UP of Michigan…..wild, snowy and a long way between towns. So it seemed to him that his sales were higher than what his commission was and he confronted the manager. The reply was that if my father were paid commission on all his sales, he would be earning more than some of the company executives so they were hiding some of his sales. Ugly and my father quit that day, went to work for a more honest competing company and was paid on all of his sales.
I've been in the sales biz for 25 years. The owners are all crooked, trust me.....all of them. Yes, you can earn a lot of money....but they still have to give it to you... Well, at least this gig is mostly base salary...which is more than fine with me. Good people, not like the previous schmuck.
