Carcano
Valued Senior Member
Its true that in Japan and some parts of Europe there is a much narrower ratio between executive and manual labour incomes.A 5:1 maximum wage ratio is generous. I could simply have defined work done as Calories expended and that would REALLY have flattened the pay scale. A CEO sitting on his ass behind a desk doesn't burn a fraction of the energy that a janitor does, standing on his feet all day long pushing a broom, scrubbing toilets. I was generous though because management usually has higher education, special skill, or a helluva lot of experience. But I rebuke the pyramid scheme thinking that a CEO has a 1000-times more responsibility and therefore deserves 1000-times the pay.
And I'm sure this is primarily for cultural reasons.
Japan is a 'collectivist' culture...whereas the US is 'individualistic'.
As far as your CALORIC theory of value is concerned, its not all that far from Karl Marx or even Adam Smith...who believed that if a beaver pelt required twice as much effort to acquire as a deer pelt, it should be worth twice as much in arrowheads.