I simply want to ask the question: ' why a person who wins tens of millions of dollars in a lottery is not subject to the same kind of hostile greed-envy talk that a person being paid that same amount of money as a manager of a corporation experiences?'
I don't have the answer. It clearly has to do with the lottery winner benefiting from luck not because the person is ‘better’. Anyone can win the lottery. Executives have to have more than just luck.
It is certainly hard, if not impossible, for the public to understand why corporate executives or successful businesspeople are able to generate a great deal of income because their behavior is good.
First we have people who are actors portraying corporate executives (like Peter Coyote) who have no understanding of the role. (Many such Hollywood actors playing corporate executives in fact come from a Marxist background.).
We also live in a society in which absolutely no arts, theater, movies or novels convey the type of work effort and competence that it takes to earn high income. Except for sports and movie stars.
This could be a partial explanation. The next blog expands my bewilderment.