Opinion | The Wealthy Steal, Too — Just Differently

In 1965, C.E.O.s had been paid 21 instances the common employee. In 2024, C.E.O.s are paid 281 instances the common employee. I really feel a few of that is coming from a sense of, like, the principles are — the social contract is damaged. After which there’s additionally the slippery slope of what occurs if we utterly break the social contract and nobody performs by the principles anymore. And I’m wondering the place you two see the interaction of these two concepts. Effectively, the principles are already designed in a method the place should you steal from the poor, you turn out to be wealthy. If you happen to steal from the rich, you go to jail. So there’s just one route the place you are able to do limitless theft and erode the social contract for the 99 %. There’s an invisibility baked into the system that permits the rich to have interaction on this kind of habits, as a result of, I imply, it’s a cliche at this level, however wage theft is essentially the most consequential quantity of theft that takes place in america of America. I imply, the 1 %, the highest 1 % of Individuals, 20 % of their earnings is withdrawn from, is withheld from reporting yearly. Prefer it’s only a standing statistic. And that’s not even a company construction. That’s not even, I imply, that’s simply peculiar wealthy individuals.