Damocles said:
That's sort of the point.
5 x 5 = 25 is correct.
5 x 5 = 200 is wrong.
5 x 5 = purple is not even wrong.
Not even wrong denotes when something doesn't follow the ideas of testable hypothesis. 5 x 5 = 25 is testable and correct. 5 x 5 = 200 is testable and incorrect. 5 x 5 = purple is not testable thus not even incorrect, it's just as you so rightly point out, gibberish.
Now, when you say "Executive pay has ballooned, with little or no connection to performance!" it is untestable as it lacks specifics so a source is required to provide a testable hypothesis to then test. Otherwise it fails to even stand as correct or incorrect.
Well you don't HAVE to prove anything but it is an accepted idea that two people who are debating over a point should be able and willing to challenge each others views, which involves showing your working. Otherwise you're just blogging to an audience and not actually debating anything.
It's fine to be self evidently true to you, though I'd argue that that is a mistake in itself but it's your decision to make that mistake and it's only harming you. But the point is that you're not talking to a mirror, you're talking to a bunch of other people who hold similar and differing opinions to you. There's no reason for anybody to believe anything that you say, or that I say, or that SWP says because we haven't established the expert knowledge in an area through the production of that expertise in a source.
Your point seems to be "I can believe anything that I want", and it's true that you can but on the flip side other people can also challenge your beliefs whenever they want and think less of you if you cannot back them up with anything more than your own feelings. Especially in this specific case when you made a claim that appears to the reader to have some sort of studied knowledge behind it.
No they don't. But when somebody asks you to back up your assertion about the rules of motion, you have the ability to do so. That's what the problem is here, you've said something in an argument and nobody has any ability to back it up because you're unwilling to divulge how it is that you know this which is all the production of a source actually is.
You don't have an argument to destroy. That's why he is full of indignation. If you explain your argument then he can either destroy it or admit that there's merit to it. The problem is that you haven't produced an argument but seem to be under the impression that you have and it's unable to be argued. You've produced words that look like an argument if you squint. Without any sources to back up the positive claims you have made then there is nothing to destroy.
Of course I have an argument to destroy, this is the original post....
I suspect you like me are on PAYE, maybe with a small bonus element maybe not, so we couldn't abuse the system even if we wanted to. Executive pay has outstripped not only average wages and inflation but even share value and profit. Put simply executives are awarding themselves increases that bear no relationship to performance. Even when performance is related to increased shareholder value this all too often leads to short termism that temporarily boosts the share value, which is then cashed in to the long lasting damage of the company and wider shareholders (not to mention stakeholders like employees).
Legislation to prevent this abuse of the system not only makes economic sense it would be welcomed by many share holders who see executives ripping off companies at their expense.
Your opinion of it, its lack of external links the varacity of my argument, you might consider it nonsense, fine, have at it, but
do have at it
Take this one point.....
Executive pay has outstripped average wages and inflation
I have have loads of links to back this up, so why do I not post them? Simple, just as I believe inequality has increased in this country and food bank use has risen in this country, how suicides have increased and the productivity gap is still terrible compared to our competitors, I believe these things to be what my late dad used to call the "bleedin obvious" and these points are not debating points, they're givens, they're lauch pads for discussion.
Right wingers seem to love disputing the "bleedin obvious" Why? Because it stiffles debate, they muddy the waters by refusing to accept there is even a topic to talk about, so we don't address excessive executive pay because, despite all the moutains of evidence, they dispute a problem exists, or if they do, they set up a Commision to look at the evidence (not the problem mind) and they'll get back to us in five years, or never.
Left wingers are tired of having to justify the bleedin obvious, if SWP cries foul then fine but it's not because he doesn't have a point to answer, it is because he can't.