If everyone was rich and wealthy who would make the sandwiches?

I guess if you pay everyone the same folks would just do what they fancy or go where the work was. There is the argument that no one would train for the ‘harder’ stuff like being a doctor, for example, when they could earn the same polishing shoes – but then you would know it truly was a vocation.

@bob_ —- he owes a lotta sandwiches to a lotta folks.

@anartist You stole my words!! :D

If everyone was paid the same doing whatever job they’re doing right now, i’ll have to agree with @AC that many people may not bother with the big (and often) important jobs because they’ll be making the same money doing simpler things that take up less of their time. Unless they actually really WANTED to be a doctor or lawyer or architect or engineer etc – many won’t do these things anymore solely because they know they can make good money from it.
The shoe-shiners and cleaners (and other similar smaller yet important jobs) would most likely continue what they’re doing – mostly because some of them are doing this becaue they’re not qualified or able to do anything else “bigger” (eg corporate works). So many would continue what they’re doing now because if the job market doesn’t change, they may still find themselves without a job.
I don’t know, there are so many variables and this is too much thinking for me on a Saturday. :)

If salaries were equal there would be no incentive to become educated. So, in your stated society, our Dr. Smith of today may be shining shoes at the airport.

They’d have to make there own damn sandwiches. :) && I guess you would have to do everything else yourself too.

The immigrants sneaking across the border.

(mustard or mayo)

Rishard, yeah he’d be the guy to see.

People who just enjoy making and selling sandwiches. I am sure there are some to whom that applies.

If everyone got the same salary but had to earn it in some way then there wouldn’t be enough people who wanted to do all the jobs needed, like quality control, assembly-line work, bookkeeping, heavy equipment purchasing, filing, laborer, asbestos removal worker, gaffer, go-fer etc—factories would fail,construction projects would collapse, epic films would not get made, governments and armies would cease to function.

If everyone started with the same income for whatever they did, services that no one wanted to do would be at a premium and a reverse economy would develop where bootblacks made more than bankers

If bootblacks made more than bankers they could work fewer hours, go to university, get educated, do something they liked, then have to go look for their own bootblacks

If everyone got the same salary for not working as working no one would do anything boring and civilization would collapse.

@bob.

Is someone proposing making everyone equally wealthy? Who? When?

mmmmmmm, Sammaches.

{drools}

If everyone was equally rich, and everyone tried to live off their money, people would find that they can’t eat money. The law of supply and demand would rear its ugly head and people would start looking for food (and other goods) to buy. The prices of those goods would be through the roof since availability would be extremely limited, so people would quickly be forced to return to work. And since everyone’s job skills would still be different, most people would still have to do the same jobs they do now. And former rich people with business skills would start accumulating money faster than most, and (sadly) some former poor people would end up pissing their money away. Though many people would end up better off by starting out with some cash in the bank. In the end, I suspect that most people would be generally better off overall by virtue of nobody being dirt poor any more, but some people would gradually return to their former relative economic levels through the effects of their own money-handling skills and job skills.

@HungryGuy I think you are more on point. Many years ago I read a study by some college and nooooooo.I can’t remember which one that said if you took the wealth of the world and spread it evenly among everyone, within 10 years 90% of those who have most of it now will have it again and 90% of those who are poor will be poor again. Money is not the key to wealth if you don’t know what do do with it or how to put it to work. If everyone was rich and did not have to work why would some one want to drive a bus, taxi, or that horse drawn cart around the park unless they really wanted to? If they did not need the job for a pay check they would be out playing golf, sailing, at polo matches or maybe lounging away in the hot tub watching the big screen if they had anyone who still wanted to work the TV stations and cable outlets.

@Hypocrisy_Central – I think the only way we’re going to get a leisure society as hinted by your question is if we have robots to do all those menial jobs and provide us all with food and consumer goods for free just by requisitioning them, so that we can all spend our time creating art and leisure activities. The problem is how to get from here to there.

As things are going now, if we get such robots, they’ll be owned by the corporate and political elite. Those who can’t buy into the leisure robot system will end up living a subsistance existance outside the mainstream robot driven economy.

@HungryGuy “As things are going now, if we get such robots, they’ll be owned by the corporate and political elite.” Everyone could own a robot if they wanted because everyone would be filthy rich. The devil is who would service the robots when they needed to be? Unless those who made the robots were into robots just because it was their thing and they’d do it if they were penniless, no one would want to waste time away from the theater figuring out why Robitron 320 can’t lift its left arm anymore. Or how would you get someone to come out and pick the thing up and take it to the repair center? Unless you have people who just love to drive trucks for the sake of driving them.

@Hypocrisy_Central – Ya’ know? I don’t think it would be such a big problem getting people to do professional jobs in a leisure society. Even now, plenty of musicians create music and videos without monetary compensation. Just look at YouTube. Same with authors and artists and such. There’s no shortage of people who write and create art without compensation. I think there would be plenty of people who would do stuff (like repair robots) just for the fun of it. It’s just the drudge jobs that you list in your question that nobody will ever want to do again.

Right now, it seems to be a kind of perk to make your own sandwiches. Lot’s of wealthy people enjoy getting their hands dirty that way, so to speak. It’s food prep, and it is a personal thing.

What concerns me is who is going to keep us from getting bed sores when we can’t roll ourselves over? If we keep all the immigrants out, where is this labor going to come from? Americans will have to go live elsewhere in order to get the services they want since there will be no one here to work in the services.

Huge chunks of the production industries have already been taken over by robotic systems. That sort of automation will continue. The more menial a task, the more possible it is to automate it. That’s something to keep in mind when considering stuff like this.

The rich should make their own damn sandwiches.

@Hypocrisy_Central Do you have any Grey Poupon?

@hiphiphopflipflapflop Ask the robot, that is, if he hasn’t assimilated me yet. ;-|

Ah, the Morlocks are just around the corner again.
Don’t want to ever work but want to have everything?
Fine. Here’s the deal. . . .

You should be aware that man has a much longer history with wealth concentrated than with a democratic middle class. What is happening now is that we are collapsing or regressing toward a king based feudal society.

All the kings of recent times were is that they were the ones that controlled the most wealth. City states like Venice and Genoa had ruling families that had or controlled the wealth. They also sponsored science and the arts. Galileo, and Michelangelo had patrons who supported their work. People like them and some merchants represented a very small middle class. The vast majority lived hand-to-mouth. They lived and died at the pleasure of the ruling class.

It was in this atmosphere that the East India Company was created. It’s purpose, under the sponsorship of English nobility, was to explore and exploit their discoveries.

Since the company was a monopoly controlled by the ruling class, it made its own rules and its actions were only limited by profit. Exploitation, slavery, and authoritarian policies were the normal mode of business. This is pretty much the same philosophy as exists in international corporate leadership of today.

So the answer is simple, people with the aptitude,humility, and the ability to ingratiate the rulers will be doctors, scientists, and artists. People without those skills are on the own to starve or prosper. The can expect no help from the state. I guess you could say that will have attained the Ayn Rand, libertarian ideal state of existence.

Ask Neal Boortz LOL