There is, of course, the satisfaction that comes from work well done. But this is peculiar to no special section of our society; it is common to all. For the purposes of this discussion, it simply cancels out.
And so industry must rely most importantly on financial compensation. As it becomes increasingly less able to do so, it will lose its capacity to induce qualified people to make their careers in industry, or to seek to advance to their maximum capacity.
I am necessarily talking in the future tense, because it is quite clear that the point of concern is not the executive of today, or even of the immediate future. I think, if we are to focus the picture, we must rule out consideration of the present management group. I doubt that high personal taxation has had substantial effect upon the performance of present-day management people, even though they may not be happy over the realization that at top levels each additional dollar of gross income nets its earner about 9 cents. I confess to some pain in this respect myself, but I cannot say that I am inclined as a result to work less diligently or to take my responsibilities less seriously.
Today's executives are, I think, reasonably immune. By the time a man has reached a position of eminence within his organization, he is influenced importantly by his sense of loyalty, his sense of obligation, a preoccupying interest in the work, or, as has been unkindly suggested, by conditioned reflex.
The same applies, I would guess, to those who may be regarded as the immediate successors, for they too have reached a point where the challenge and associations of the work present an incentive that will probably override reduced financial motivations. At this point one might ask: If we are not talking about present management, who is it that concerns us? There are two major areas of concern. There is, first, the effect of high
income-tax rates on long-range monetary incentives, which promises to make it more difficult than heretofore to persuade young men with real ability to enter the rank of business. Let me make it clear that I am not asking for an improvement in industry's competitive position opposite the other fields of endeavor. I merely want to maintain it.
There is, second, increased difficulty, also tracing to high tax rates, in persuading men of ability who have risen to the point where they are in sight of reaching their top capacity to keep on going rather than to rest on their oars.
I want to comment on each of these, for they are the heart of industry's problem.
It has been noted by many sociologists that for young men of ability the lure of security at a modest level has gained greatly in recent years as against the desire to venture and work to reach the top. I suspect that one of the basic reasons for this is that the financial rewards offered today just don't seem worth the struggle. Why, a young man could well be thinking, should he enter the industrial arena when he knows that the higher he gets on the ladder, the more of his time will be spent working for the Government and the less working for himself? And this is a critical question for in most cases the choice of a career made by a man when he leaves college governs his activities for the rest of his working life. If he enters law, medicine, the church, politics, the armed services, Government, the arts, teaching, research, business, the chances are strong that he will not leave that field, but will perhaps through inertia make it his career.
Beyond this, I am sure that with few exceptions, the young man with the ability to do well in one of these fields could do well in many of them. There is, save in cases of unusual physical coordination such as marks an Artur Rubinstein, or a Caruso, or even a Babe Ruth, no particular identifiable set of abilities impelling one to choose any of these fields. Enrico Fermi, for example, was an outstanding scientist. From my knowledge of him, I feel sure he would, had he so elected on leaving college, have made an outstanding business executive, a splendid lawyer, or doctor, or writer, or what you will.