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Maximum Wage Law

Unfortunately, selfish people who have only their own desires in mind and who don't mind oppressing others to get what they want will call a maximum wage law tyranny. They are more interested in serving themselves than in serving the people and community around them and the people who help build the companies they own or manage.

The bible does not endorse capitalism or even democracy as the absolute best form of government or economy. Though I believe arguably they have operated very well during the short history of the United States. Yet, we certainly see how moving away from God's ideals for loving our neighbors as ourselves has been slowly and sometimes quickly moving us down a path to a crumbling society.

Capitalism just like democracy needs regulations based on the care and concern of an almighty loving God or else men destroy themselves and future generations because they are otherwise bound to pursue the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In other words, the love of money becomes the root of evil that destroys them.

In this scenario men convince themselves that they are worth far more than anyone else and they don't care who they have to abuse and step on to get to the level they seek. This is opposite the care and concern Christians should have for their neighbors. When you're talking about paying workers fair wages against the wages of top brass you're not talking about rewarding laziness: the workers work that is why they are called workers. Anyone who doesn't work would be let go if after a short time you cannot help them be productive in their assignments.

The scripture you mentioned in your response about the master paying all the laborers the same wage no matter how many hours they worked that day goes against your argument that a maximum wage law is tyranny. The master represents God and He paid everyone the same amount. He was not a respecter of persons in the manner that many of the so called “elite” in American society have become in order to place themselves in an elite category. 

Some of them have become so selfish in their attitudes concerning paying themselves versus paying the bulk of others who help them succeed that they are leading many people down the wrong path of seeking and engaging the same attitude and heart. The reality is that Jesus parable was intended to be a spiritual message in the sense that it did not matter when you gave your life to the Lord you are just as saved as the person who gave their life many years ago and you receive the same eternal reward: life in the new heavens and new earth. 

James 5, 1Timothy 6:9-10, Luke 12:13-21, and Jesus admonition to the young rich ruler to go sell all that he has, give it to the poor, and come follow Him speak to the fact the men put too much confidence in what they think they are worth and that they make income and riches their pursuit and strong tower instead of loving God and loving people like they should. Consider Old Testament scriptures where God spoke against leaders of the people eating lavishly and becoming fat while the citizens starved and could not care for themselves (Nehemiah 5:1-12, Ezekiel 34:7-10, Amos 6:4-8, etc.).

God established conscience, government, law, and judges in order to help men order themselves in a manner that would be good for them as societies in the short and long term. Men cannot just go running their own way with selfish, greedy attitudes, actions, and motives and think that everything will work out well for them. The fact that we have done so is a major reason why we’re seeing the economic turmoil we have today.

Fact is, the maximum wage law I’m speaking of only applies only to total income and benefits a company pays out to any person. A difference of twenty times the lowest paid employees is more than enough incentive for people to pursue more productivity and thus be paid in a more lucrative manner. This allows all boats to rise with the tide and makes executives and boards consider their employee neighbors when they decide to lavish income and benefits on themselves.

Consider that a business that pays its lowest wage worker $50,000 per year would be able to pay its executives up to $1,000,000. This is not a small piece of change and this amount will automatically rise over the years due to the inflationary factor in our economy and monetary systems. Yet, the executives still get the better end of the stick, whether each individual executive truly deserves it or not, in the sense that when their lowest paid workers earns $100,000 per year then the company could pay each executive up to $2,000,000.

Such a law in no way affects the remuneration that any shareholder in a company could get from stock appreciation. This is where the founder and future owners of a business may get enormous returns based on the profitability of their business or others desire to purchase shares from them.

The argument that people will sit in a corner and not work because they don’t have the income incentive they want goes against the character that God put in us and demands from us: that we work unto Him and be productive and not as men pleasers (not even pleasers of ourselves). God has many more ways than income from a job that He can use to bless and reward people who love Him and love their neighbors as themselves and who are a productive.

We the people (the government) must enact laws to ensure that greed, avarice, selfishness, and oppression do not overtake the fairness that will result from our adherence to the greatest commandment (loving God and loving people). For those that don’t think you can legislate morality, think what type of country would we be if we did not have laws against murder, rape, stealing, etc? We may not be able to make every man operate in a moral way, yet we do have laws that deal with immoral behavior that hurt and destroy other people and our society.

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