Scary new wage data

[chucky2]

I sure am, as are everyone else out there, including CEO's. Everyone is replacable at a large Corp.

What is absolute truth at a large Corp. is that the further you go up the ladder, the further those people are from true Reality. They have their own reality that they operate in, that the people underneath make happen within the confines of true Reality.

These people don't figure anything out, or even manage it at any real level. They make decisions in their own little reality zone with the information that's already been scrubbed, collated, optioned, etc. for them, and they "make" the "decision" on which way to proceed.

Funny enough, it's almost always the only sane decision we've already come up with far down below them, we just came up with it weeks ago and already in the background started implementing it (shhhh...don't tell the bean counters, that doesn't fit into their debit and credit mindscheme) because we couldn't wait any longer.

CEO is all puffy that he/she pushed wireless....no sh1t there Mr. Smart CEO, your wireline business is overpriced and stagnant, and wireless is obviously the hot new thing. You listen to these folks internally though (or even publically), and they're amazingly confident and knowledgable. How?

Because all the hard work and decisions have already been made for them....rarely do they ever actually contribute anything that someone else hasn't already basically done underneath them.

It's just the way it is....

Chuck

 

[daishi5]

Are we talking salary here or total compensation / income?

The numbers given appear to include total compensation. But I just did a quick google search to get a comparison. I am honestly surprised how far below this average the top CEO's compensation is. Tiger Woods comes close, but even he is at 33% of the average. It looks like we have one CEO in this group, and he is at the very bottom of the group. So, it looks like we probably have a very small group of people who got a lot richer this year.

Another important question that is not answered here is if this rate of income is a sustained income, or if it is just a group of people whose income was a one time event due to market conditions that is special. Stats are easy to lie with, and this jump seems to be so drastic that it is not a new trend, but a single event at a glance.

 

[Jaskalas]

You read that right. In the Great Recession year of 2009 (officially just the first half of the year), the average pay of the very highest-income Americans was more than five times their average wages and bonuses in 2008.

Government money makes some people rich. Thank you bail outs.

 

[Acanthus]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101019-703637.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_502313.html

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds...art=410227200000&tunit=M&tlen=331&hl=en&dl=en

You are citing places with even higher income disparity as a model for fixing income disparity?

 

[werepossum]

The good news for JS80 is, he can be as much of a son of a bitch 'screw everyone else' he wants, but as long as he's making $250K, he's going to face a large majority who have him in their crosshairs and will increase his taxes - including the extremely wealthy who know he's their cash cow and have the power to keep themselves taxed little.

And the best part is, the voting won't be by the more reasonable liberals who advocate fair taxes, it'll be by the ignorant masses who just want to screw JS80.

This is why he's an enemy of democracy, because as someone in the wealthier minority who's clueless about morality or the benefits of less concentration of wealth, it must drive him bat crazy (as we see) that the hordes he has such contempt for are given a vote to steal his money. 'Dear slimeball who doesn't make $250K a year, would you like to raise the taxes on JS80?' 'Why not, screw him'. I love democracy.

There isn't really a more considered, moral, reasonable discussion than this possible with someone like JS80, who can do no more than rationalize selfishness.

After all these years I still find it amazing that the left calls selfish a desire to keep what one has earned, yet does not consider wanting a piece of someone else's labor to be selfish. That is exactly backward.

 

[BoberFett]

After all these years I still find it amazing that the left calls selfish a desire to keep what one has earned, yet does not consider wanting a piece of someone else's labor to be selfish. That is exactly backward.

95% of what Craig says is stupid. The other 5% is REALLY stupid.

 

[Acanthus]

After all these years I still find it amazing that the left calls selfish a desire to keep what one has earned, yet does not consider wanting a piece of someone else's labor to be selfish. That is exactly backward.

The problem is everyone is working hard, and 2% of the people are getting paid in increasingly large amounts.

It is bad economics.

 

[Exterous]

The problem is everyone is working hard, and 2% of the people are getting paid in increasingly large amounts.

It is bad economics.

The problem is that a massive number of Americans made some really really stupid decisions so now people have to work harder to 'get ahead'

Yes - I am finger pointing at the people who:
Lived outside their means
Bought more house than they could afford
Made gernerally stupid financial decisions
Those who preyed on the finacially stupid
Those who bought cheaper forgein made stuff in such massive quantities
Those who sold out American jobs to go overseas to sell to those above
All the masses of self entitled morons who abuse the system

This has caused the income disparity -> the combined stupidity of the American populus. This is why everyone is having to work harder

But it is far easier to blame someone else and covet what they have

 

[Acanthus]

The problem is that a massive number of Americans made some really really stupid decisions so now people have to work harder to 'get ahead'

Yes - I am finger pointing at the people who:
Lived outside their means
Bought more house than they could afford
Made gernerally stupid financial decisions
Those who preyed on the finacially stupid
Those who bought cheaper forgein made stuff in such massive quantities
Those who sold out American jobs to go overseas to sell to those above
All the masses of self entitled morons who abuse the system

This has caused the income disparity -> the combined stupidity of the American populus. This is why everyone is having to work harder

But it is far easier to blame someone else and covet what they have

I don't blame the rich at all.

The problem is the damage is done, and now we need to fix it without wars.

To bring income disparity down you need to increase the tax burden at the top and take steps to reduce unequal trade and slave wages worldwide.

 

[werepossum]

95% of what Craig says is stupid. The other 5% is REALLY stupid.

LOL Excellent!

The problem is everyone is working hard, and 2% of the people are getting paid in increasingly large amounts.

It is bad economics.

I would disagree that everyone is working hard. I seriously doubt that you'll find anyone making that kind of money posting on forums, for one thing. I can agree that this is bad economics; I do not agree that it's the government's job to "straighten out" bad economics. For instance, one of those idiots on one of those Jersey reality programs is making upwards of ten million a year. I don't think he (or she, I forget) is worth that - but I am not paying that salary. Left alone, companies will either pay their executives what they are worth, or they will suffer the consequences. Government stepping in to set wages will just prove that none of us is as smart as all of us and that anything done by government will inevitably be done for political reasons. Government setting confiscatory tax rates on these people will merely set the table for confiscatory tax rates on the rest of us. In the long run, we cannot win by empowering government; we can only lose freedom.

 

[bamacre]

Income disparity is not the problem. It is a symptom of a bigger problem. When a patient has a brain tumor, you don't give them aspirin for the headaches. Government is almost always out to solve the symptoms rather than the initiating problems, and usually because it is the initiating problem.

 

[JS80]

The problem is everyone is working hard, and 2% of the people are getting paid in increasingly large amounts.

It is bad economics.

Everyone does not work hard. Poor people do not work hard, exemplified by their earnings. Poor people make bad decisions and/or are lazy.

 

[BoberFett]

Income disparity is not the problem. It is a symptom of a bigger problem. When a patient has a brain tumor, you don't give them aspirin for the headaches. Government is almost always out to solve the symptoms rather than the initiating problems, and usually because it is the initiating problem.

Indeed.

 

[Craig234]

Everyone does not work hard. Poor people do not work hard, exemplified by their earnings. Poor people make bad decisions and/or are lazy.

Lol, liar and idiot. This idiot is just evil, rationalizing his psychopath behavior.

 

[Craig234]

Income disparity is not the problem. It is a symptom of a bigger problem. When a patient has a brain tumor, you don't give them aspirin for the headaches.

But you do make false analogies. You sound like a homeopathy nut explaining why western medicine is more harm than good.

 

[Craig234]

The problem is that a massive number of Americans made some really really stupid decisions so now people have to work harder to 'get ahead'

Yes - I am finger pointing at the people who:
Lived outside their means
Bought more house than they could afford
Made gernerally stupid financial decisions
Those who preyed on the finacially stupid
Those who bought cheaper forgein made stuff in such massive quantities
Those who sold out American jobs to go overseas to sell to those above
All the masses of self entitled morons who abuse the system

This has caused the income disparity -> the combined stupidity of the American populus. This is why everyone is having to work harder

But it is far easier to blame someone else and covet what they have

You are no less a follower of false ideology than the most doctrinaire Marxist. Nothing you say actually works, but you will defend the lies violently.

 

[ShawnD1]

Everyone does not work hard. Poor people do not work hard, exemplified by their earnings. Poor people make bad decisions and/or are lazy.

I'm guessing you've never had a job in your entire life and you live in your parents basement.


Right now my engineering job is the best paying job I've ever had. It's also the easiest job I've ever had. Guys working outside for 10-12 hours in the rain get paid less than me. Before getting my first engineering job, I was working in a retail store. Instead of sitting on my ass all day and drinking free coffee while getting paid decent, working in a store involves standing for 8 hours, wearing a short sleeve uniform even though it's freezing outside, and carrying 40 pound boxes. Poor people work harder than wealthy people. This is basically a fact. My dad's exact reasoning for why he demanded I go to school or get kicked out of the house was "so you won't need to work as hard"

 

[JS80]

I'm guessing you've never had a job in your entire life and you live in your parents basement.


Right now my engineering job is the best paying job I've ever had. It's also the easiest job I've ever had. Guys working outside for 10-12 hours in the rain get paid less than me. Before getting my first engineering job, I was working in a retail store. Instead of sitting on my ass all day and drinking free coffee while getting paid decent, working in a store involves standing for 8 hours, wearing a short sleeve uniform even though it's freezing outside, and carrying 40 pound boxes. Poor people work harder than wealthy people. This is basically a fact. My dad's exact reasoning for why he demanded I go to school or get kicked out of the house was "so you won't need to work as hard"

Believe it or not, using your brain is "working hard."

 

[Acanthus]

Everyone does not work hard. Poor people do not work hard, exemplified by their earnings. Poor people make bad decisions and/or are lazy.

So lets explore that idea. Even if what you say is true...

How does that justify a rising gini index?

 

[ShawnD1]

So lets explore that idea. Even if what you say is true...

How does that justify a rising gini index?

Easy. Americans today are lazier than they were yesterday

 

[JACKHAMMER]

Believe it or not, using your brain is "working hard."

Obviously you are incapable of working hard then.

 

[WHAMPOM]

http://tax.com/taxcom/taxblog.nsf/Permalink/UBEN-8AGMUZ?OpenDocument

More info, graphs, and opining on the current state of things at the link. Just more evidence to throw on the pile that policies that promote such income disparities twirl everyone except for the few floaters further and further down the crapper.

Big companies swallow other companies and the megacorp CEOs give themselves a Mega raise. Now don't think the out of work CEOs did not get a golden parachute and big cash buy out.

 

[WHAMPOM]

Believe it or not, using your brain is "working hard."

You have "working hard" confused with "worked to death." Working your brain "hard" hardly ever leads to a crippling disability or early death.

 

[ShawnD1]

You have "working hard" confused with "worked to death." Working your brain "hard" hardly ever leads to a crippling disability or early death.

Lawyers have really high suicide rates

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Lawyers have really high suicide rates

Not high enough.