The Deserving Rich: Don’t Perform Dangerous Work

Insightful analysts have had a field day shredding this tribute to the richest among us. They’ve shown how economic rule changes and shady behaviors, not “extraordinary” performance, funnel fortunes to our privileged. And they’ve skewered the claim that the “greater risks” the rich take justify their status.

One helpful rejoinder to Mankiw lists America’s 10 actual riskiest jobs. Among them: loggers, miners, pilots, roofers, garbage collectors, truckers, industrial machinery operators, and agricultural and oil field workers. No one in any of these jobs earns in a year what Wall Street’s “risk-taking” finest make in a day.

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This has been reposted from Too Much.