We may be able to add only a bit to what those before us have provided, but it is a vital bit, and of course work takes up much of our lives. Not surprisingly, we want to feel that we and others are fairly rewarded for it. We don’t want others free-riding on our efforts if they have no good reason for doing so.

In a capitalist economy, what people get is largely a function of power, not of moral or democratic judgement. However strongly we may feel about what would be fair and just, we have to remember that our incomes aren’t determined by people sitting around and deciding what we need or deserve. When an organisation decides it needs to create a new job, the person who draws up the job spec might possibly think about what someone doing it might deserve, but the finance department is likely to make sure they don’t set the pay higher than is necessary to get an employee of the required standard.

Do individuals’ incomes reflect the value of what they contribute?

We have already dealt with one major reason why workers in general don’t get paid the equivalent of what they have created: as long as there are rentiers and capitalists, workers have to produce enough not only to cover their own pay, but also to provide those owners with unearned income. They also provide transfers or warranted unearned income for those too young, old, sick or disabled to work. So the existence of unearned income of either kind means that, in general, those who produce goods and services will get paid less than the value of what they produce. (And remember, these workers could be anywhere; in a global economy they don’t have to be in the same country as those who get the surplus.)

It’s still possible for at least some productive workers to get paid more than they have contributed, perhaps by taking advantage of a particular source of power, such as having control over a key bit of technology on which their firm depends, or having specialist skills and knowledge, or a management role; in such cases they would be partly subsidised by their fellow, less powerful employees. Differences in what employees get paid depend heavily on how much power they have in terms of skill, know-how and authority.