If you simply say everyone should make the same regardless of skill, then you diminish the value of both the skill, and the effort used to master the skill.
If you're just talking about the peons trading labor for money, then yes, more or less.
But there's another class of folks, and my anecdotal evidence is that they're freaking everywhere, overflowing with unearned wealth. I'm nobody from nowhere and I know many of these people, and they'd be screwed if they had to go through what I have.
The veneer of meritocratic capitalism in America should be at the breaking point IMO. But this is a vulgar place so I'm probably wrong.
The argument for capitalism is not about equality, but relative mobility compared to other systems. That mobility creates incentive and thus growth.
Fair enough. Let's call it all equal then.
>The argument for capitalism is not about equality, but relative mobility compared to other systems.
The argument for socialism (or socialism-like endeavors) is about equality; when societies are more equal, 'relative mobility' is less important, because the place you're in is less likely to be so horrible that you're dying to get out of it.