Distribution of the surplus is the biggest issue - does the surplus go exclusively to the capitalist? Or are there other interested segments of society who should reap some of the benefits?
Distribution of surpluses isn't a problem that needs to be "fixed" - it happens naturally. Those who know how to put together a company and produce value already get good rewards. Capitalism is the fairest, yet most cold hearted, system. But the key is it is fair as those who produce get the most. It is only when commies interfere and start picking winners and losers that things get messed up.
Business owners take on the risk, therefore, they get the biggest rewards. There is 0 risk in being an employee. You show up and get a paycheck for your time. There is never a situation where you go to a job and it turns out you actually now owe money rather than have made money. Yet, this is a reality for people who get into business.
That is why in order to motivate people to build businesses they have to be given disproportionally large rewards. If it weren't for the possibility of extremely high pay offs much above what I can earn on a job, for example, would have just gotten a job instead of building my business (which employs 50 people).
what do we do with the displaced workers?
They will have to re-educate themselves and find something else to do. It is not our responsibility to do anything for them. They have to do things for themselves. They are certainly not entitled to reap the benefits of someone else's system and capital just because they lost out on work because of it.
At one point, we decreed that any labor over 40 hours needed to be paid time and one-half, creating more jobs for people. Maybe a solution is to change that to 30 or 35? Maybe a tax on production machinery that is used for worker retraining?
So you want to punish people who have full time jobs by forcing them to take on less hours and less pay? I wonder how someone who works hard to put food on their table will react if you tell them they need to take a pay cut and work less (even though they want to work as much as they can) so that their neighbor could have some too. I don't think they'd react too kindly.
A tax on production machinery? That's insane. What will happen then is the machinery will just go back overseas.
Business owners like me do not see it as our responsibility to make sure that people have good jobs with benefits. I see it as my responsibility to make as much money as I can for myself. That's why I got into business. Providing jobs and enriching others is just a necessary byproduct of my own selfish pursuit of wealth. Give me crappy cards like high taxes and mandates and I will go somewhere where I will be dealt a better hand.
Efficient production should lead to more total wealth. That is the whole point. But if the wealth goes only to a small proportion of the population, leaving large numbers unemployed, then new problems are created, which could (and perhaps, which must be) be dealt with as new opportunities.
The solution is to encourage people to get better educations and learn how to create value. It is not to confiscate the rewards business owners earn through their hard work and redistribute it. Your commie none sense is what leads to increased poverty and less opportunities around the world.
It does not matter if you don't have as much as someone else, what matters is your quality of life. Thanks to capitalism even the poorest in countries like the United States enjoy fast computers with the internet, big flat screen TVs with HD channels, and even cell phones that let them communicate from anywhere. That's already a higher quality of life than even the wealthiest people had just 50 years ago.
I saw Elvis Presley's house in Memphis Tennessee and all he had for a TV was a small black and white CRT TV. That's all that existed in his day. Most of us on this forum if not all of us have much better TVs at home today and yet none (or few) of us are as fabulously wealthy as Elvis was.
Key here is to stop looking at what others have and enjoy what you have. The way the economy works is that those who create value for others earn the most money. So if some are getting super rich that means the quality of life is improving for everyone.
Apple is only super wealthy as a company because they made products that improved the quality of all of our lives and changed them forever. In fact, it is only thanks to Apple's products that many people have jobs at all. I am talking about the iOS developers, small time video editors, photographers, etc. who all rely on Apple's software to let them do their work.
So rather than focusing on taking what's in Apple's bank account and redistributing it (therefore, sending a message to anyone thinking about changing the world like Apple did that if they are successful they will be targeted) we should be focusing on creating more Apple's.
Again, if someone is becoming ultra rich that means that many people are being positively affected by what they are doing (otherwise people would not be throwing money their way). So get out of their way and let them continue their work!