> Well, for billions of employees it never is, even after 30+ years of hard labor.
This is not a good comparison. You are right that the answer is "never". But the other side of the coin is that, as a Dutch full-time employee, you enjoy incredible stability, something which employers don't have.
The employer might get rich after 10 years of hard work. Or the employer may (much more likely) go bankrupt.
As an employee you are not required to work more than the contracted 40h/week. Yes you will never get rich, but you also don't really have the risk of going bankrupt next month. You are not required to do more than 9-5. You don't have to work overly hard.
Heck even if you lose your job and you can't find a new one, the state will give you a minimum income. You aren't rich but it's also nearly impossible for you to end up in poverty.
If you want to have a shot at getting rich, then start your own company and take the risks of going bankrupt at any moment until you make it. Instead of complaining that you can't get rich while also enjoying stability.
This is also the position of the Dutch tax authority. I once once tried giving employees equity (while also giving salary). The tax authority was like: you can't give them equity for free, they have to buy it from you. I asked why, because I never bought my own stocks. They said: because they're carrying none of the risk, so it's not a fair business transaction if they get it for free; they must pay for it and also pay taxes over the transaction.
>This is not a good comparison. You are right that the answer is "never". But the other side of the coin is that, as a Dutch full-time employee, you enjoy incredible stability, something which employers don't have.
Perhaps, but if only the employer-employee relationship only happened in the Netherlands [1], and not in 120+ other countries. Because in most places "incredible stability" is less than a pipe dream.
([1] And in relatively recent Netherlands, because historically workers there didn't have it as good, and with new neoliberal laws passed and prior rights eroded, workers increasingly they don't have it as good as more "socialist" decades past).
This is not a good comparison. You are right that the answer is "never". But the other side of the coin is that, as a Dutch full-time employee, you enjoy incredible stability, something which employers don't have.
The employer might get rich after 10 years of hard work. Or the employer may (much more likely) go bankrupt.
As an employee you are not required to work more than the contracted 40h/week. Yes you will never get rich, but you also don't really have the risk of going bankrupt next month. You are not required to do more than 9-5. You don't have to work overly hard.
Heck even if you lose your job and you can't find a new one, the state will give you a minimum income. You aren't rich but it's also nearly impossible for you to end up in poverty.
If you want to have a shot at getting rich, then start your own company and take the risks of going bankrupt at any moment until you make it. Instead of complaining that you can't get rich while also enjoying stability.
This is also the position of the Dutch tax authority. I once once tried giving employees equity (while also giving salary). The tax authority was like: you can't give them equity for free, they have to buy it from you. I asked why, because I never bought my own stocks. They said: because they're carrying none of the risk, so it's not a fair business transaction if they get it for free; they must pay for it and also pay taxes over the transaction.