The problem is when a central bank distorts prices such that no analysis can be done. But obvious questions can be asked: 1) was everyone's schooling costs the same? 2) does everyone manage money well? 3) does everyone spend the same way?

+1 for "presidebt".

For the team!

He lowered his own salary from $2M to 70K as well, so at least he practices what he preaches. (That's why he's renting out rooms in his house. If his company is doing badly, I haven't seen any stories about that yet.)

What I'd predict is that everyone who got a raise stays, and everyone who got a pay cut looks for another job. Funny how that works.

As far as the effect on productivity by the people who stay -- it probably falls unless he finds some way to penalize the people who slack off (and it won't always show).

"Is there any difference between the encyclical's philosophy and communism? I am perfectly willing, on this matter, to take the word of an eminent Catholic authority. Under the headline: 'Encyclical Termed Rebuff to Marxism,' The New York Times of March 31, 1967, reports: 'The Rev. John Courtney Murray, the prominent Jesuit theologian, described Pope Paul's newest encyclical yesterday as the church's definitive answer to Marxism.'. . .The Marxists have proposed one way, and in pursuing their program they rely on man alone,' Father Murray said. `Now Pope Paul VI has issued a detailed plan to accomplish the same goal on the basis of true humanism humanism that recognizes man's religious nature.' ' "

"Amen."

"So much for those American 'conservatives' who claim that religion is the base of capitalism—and who believe that they can have capitalism and eat it, too, as the moral cannibalism of the altruist ethics demands."

Ayn Rand, "Requiem for Man" in Capitalism the Unknown Ideal.

It isn't only Price paying a price. His company is Gravity Payment -- pulling himself down. He was trained for it.

I guess the dude is eccentric.
Even smart can lack some common sense..

and if I admire Russell Conwell but practice "From each according to
ability, to each according to need," then the hammer and
sickle like would be appropriate! -- j
.

I am hoping that this particular news story somehow gets shouted from the mountaintops. I read all about it in Atlas Shrugged and never thought anyone would be that moronic enough to make a move like at Gravity Payment. While it was a move from literature (academic) to reality (practice), it proved Ayn Rand's point to a tee. The 20th Century Motor Company collapsed and Gravity will most likely follow suit. Is there a pool going around as to WHEN they file for Chapter 11?

From the NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/bus... cited earlier.

"If there was a 19th-century thinker Mr. Price drew inspiration from, it would be not Karl Marx, but Russell Conwell, the Baptist minister and Temple University founder, whose famed 'Acres of Diamonds' speech fused Christianity and capitalism. 'To make money honestly is to preach the Gospel,' Mr. Conwell exhorted his listeners. To get rich 'is our Christian and godly duty.'”

"Every day he and his four brothers and one sister rose as early as 5 a.m. to recite a proverb, a psalm, a Gospel chapter and an excerpt from the Old and New Testaments. Home-schooled until he was 12 and taught to accept the Bible as the literal truth,..."

"Mr. Price is no longer so religious, but the values and faith he grew up on are 'in my DNA,' he said. 'It’s just something that’s part of me.'”

Of course he fell on hard time. Because when he leveled all the pay scales, he removed the last incentive to do good work. And he literally could not see that.

He reminds me of Eric Starnes, the one who just wanted people to love him. That's still foolish, but less evil, than Gerald Starnes Jr. (the embezzler) and Ivy Starnes (the schoolmarm-ish Mistress of Distribution).

admirers of Karl Marx please line up at the sign of the hammer and sickle. -- j
.

...and totally counterproductive. Like this idiot, you would have encouraged the slackers and discouraged the productive. Making a profit (and the ability to meet payroll) with this mindset would have been virtually impossible. Of course, profit must not have been his motive; he was more interested in his workers "feelings".

This is a prime example of, "From each according to his ability to each according to his need", and the antithesis of the Objectivist Oath.

Unlikely he'd recognize the quote or understand it if he did.

We aren't too far removed from a 10-289-like executive order preventing productive people from leaving their employer. It's great that they got out while the getting was good.

"At a time when the new salary scale is being eaten up by profits." Wha???

From the NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/bus...

"Two of Mr. Price’s most valued employees quit, spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises."

and

"Maisey McMaster was also one of the believers. Now 26, she joined the company five years ago and worked her way up to financial manager, putting in long hours that left little time for her husband and extended family. 'There’s a special culture,' where people 'work hard and play hard,' she said. 'I love everyone there.'”

"She helped calculate whether the firm could afford to gradually raise everyone’s salary to $70,000 over a three-year period, and was initially swept up in the excitement. But the more she thought about it, the more the details gnawed at her.

“'He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump,' she said. To her, a fairer proposal would have been to give smaller increases with the opportunity to earn a future raise with more experience."

"A couple of days after the announcement, she decided to talk to Mr. Price."

“'He treated me as if I was being selfish and only thinking about myself,' she said. 'That really hurt me. I was talking about not only me, but about everyone in my position.'”

"Already approaching burnout from the relentless pace, she decided to quit."

"The new pay scale also helped push Grant Moran, 29, Gravity’s web developer, to leave. “I had a lot of mixed emotions,” he said. His own salary was bumped up to $50,000 from $41,000 (the first stage of the raise), but the policy was nevertheless disconcerting. 'Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me,' he complained. 'It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.'”

Someone should send McMaster and Moran copies of Atlas Shrugged -- or better, to everyone in the company.

What's with the "poor me" attitude? Perhaps he should revisit AR's quote about the consequences of avoiding reality.

As an aside, I'm set to have lunch soon with a friend who thinks this guy is a god. I can't wait.

CG: "The article doesn't say how he got from there to a $70k floor."

The NYT article says http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/bus...

"The idea struck him when a friend shared her worries about paying both her rent and student loans on a $40,000 salary...."

"When Mr. Price chose $70,000 as the eventual salary floor, he was influenced by research showing that this annual income could make an enormous difference in someone’s emotional well-being by easing nagging financial stress."

Maybe not. He has been a Rush Limbaugh fan. From the NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/bus...

"Home-schooled until he was 12 and taught to accept the Bible as the literal truth, Mr. Price also listened to the Rush Limbaugh show for three hours a day — never imagining he would one day be the subject of a rant by the host."

Methinks he may have watched this video once too often... and bought (er, make that, redistributed) the cool aid...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqJ9...

Or maybe he was just raised watching too many episodes of the Smurfs as a kid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qra0h...

I think of it another way... what an awesome opportunity for a competitoor up in Seattle to gain some well eearned business, after this company goes the way of the pteradactyl... Any Hammonds up there?

From the NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/bus...

"He started courting customers there more than 11 years ago, while still attending Seattle Pacific University, a small Christian college..."

"If there was a 19th-century thinker Mr. Price drew inspiration from, it would be not Karl Marx, but Russell Conwell, the Baptist minister and Temple University founder, whose famed 'Acres of Diamonds' speech fused Christianity and capitalism. 'To make money honestly is to preach the Gospel,' Mr. Conwell exhorted his listeners. To get rich 'is our Christian and godly duty.'”

"Every day he and his four brothers and one sister rose as early as 5 a.m. to recite a proverb, a psalm, a Gospel chapter and an excerpt from the Old and New Testaments. Home-schooled until he was 12 and taught to accept the Bible as the literal truth,..."

"Mr. Price is no longer so religious, but the values and faith he grew up on are 'in my DNA,' he said. 'It’s just something that’s part of me.'”

I noted that he waited until he was a millionaire before he became Daddy Warbucks. Everyone in this forum (I would think) understands the foolishness of this move and how in the long run it won't work. Remember the old story -- if you gave a million dollars to everyone and came back in a year, the rich would once again be rich and the poor would once again be poor. But what would happen if you told them that no one was allowed to make more than anyone else? The money would suddenly be worthless.

When I started my own company, I chose to take no salary because I had enough resources, but the salaries my staff had reflected their relative responsibilities. Giving everyone the same income is just dumb.

Just like 1984 isn't supposed to be a government!