Income Inequality

RedDenver said:
I've never understood this way of thinking. Does putting pictures of Hitler or Mussolini up every time capitalism is mentioned change anyone's opinions?

Edit to add: Dictators and authoritarians suck no matter the economic system.
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The better question might be:  Is it appropriate to put a picture of Joseph Stalin up when people are advocating what amounts to communism?  lol   :D   

(He does actually look a bit like Mussolini though.)

 
methodical said:
You'd start to actually see the advantages with income beyond 500k/year after you hit the upper bracket of taxes, so I'd probably say around there.  So around 42k/month is probably actually rich on the income scale.

Obviously it's possible to become wealthy making far less than that and building it smartly over time, or being insanely lucky, but you aren't getting into super rich territory, ever, on even a high earner's salary.  Nor are you seeing the tax advantages before that.
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Yeah i think net worth might have to factor in somewhere, since I don't think the richest people in the country pay themselves  a huge "salary", or work a job, its all in stocks, assets etc. When i think of a rich person, i think of someone who doesn't HAVE to work any more, who can buy what they want, and do what they want without worrying about money. 4% interest on 5 million would be 200K a year or 16,666 a month i think that would be enough to accomplish that. 

 
Big Red 40 said:
Yeah i think net worth might have to factor in somewhere, since I don't think the richest people in the country pay themselves  a huge "salary", or work a job, its all in stocks, assets etc. When i think of a rich person, i think of someone who doesn't HAVE to work any more, who can buy what they want, and do what they want without worrying about money. 4% interest on 5 million would be 200K a year or 16,666 a month i think that would be enough to accomplish that. 
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Many of the richest people do work, they either got lucky with starting a company that exploded in value, or they spent a lifetime running them and building their wealth.

It's a distinction for me between the I guess well off vs the actual rich.  Yeah 5 million could support a comfortable life if you had it invested but that's not what I think of as rich I guess.  I see that as more in the 10+ million net-worth range and the super rich as closing in on 100million and beyond.  The latter are the people that are pushing tax policies that benefit them and have families that will be forever generationally wealthy if managed smartly.

5 million is a nice comfortable maybe semi-early retirement with a decent, albeit not forever lasting chunk of money to give left over.

 
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RedDenver said:
There's tons of loopholes in that plan, like the large companies will simply make all their employees contractors instead of employees or outsource all their work that would require employees. And that's before considering that the vast majority of their wealth doesn't come from a salary that can be capped.
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There would have to be additional provisions to prevent that.  If I had my way, I would prohibit the kind of contracting you're referring to.  I have been a "contract employee" and it is a more exploitative system than right to work.

 
While I shudder at the thought of some type of salary cap. I do think there needs to be something in the tax law to encourage companies to either distribute profits to employees (not executives) or invest in capitol that leads to job creation. It doesn't make sense that companies are doing so well, yet the average working American hasn't seen much of a bump in pay the last decade. Especially when you compare wage growth over the last 30 or 40 years. Something is going very wrong the last 10 years.

 
Making Chimichangas said:
I work in a warehouse and I have yet to see my CEO receiving parts, stocking shelves, pulling parts, taking orders from customers, getting customers their orders--CEOs and executives don't do any of that.  It is the people at the bottom who make it possible for businesses to make money.  Those at the top do literally almost nothing but are paid like they do everything.  Those at the bottom do everything, and are paid almost nothing.  
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We can discuss wage gaps all day long and we probably would agree with some areas. 

But, I couldn’t let this paragraph go by without commenting. 

Im a CEO of a company and I care deeply about everyone in the company as do one hell of a lot of CEOs. 

First off, if I’m taking orders or filling orders, why do I need people like you working in my warehouse?  Are you going to quit so the CEO can do your job?  

Second, as an example of why I’m not in the warehouse filing orders, I left home on Sunday to spend valuable time representing our company at industry meetings which have built a good reputation amongst current and potential customers....you know....those people whose orders get filled?  I’m sitting in the Dallas airport....still not home. 

Also, I spend a hell of a lot of time on financing issues that allow us to pay wages for people in warehouses and to fund growth which allows us vto hire more people. 

I started in this company at the lowest level and worked hard at every level to get here and I still put in long hours away from family to manage the company so it is successful for everyone. 

Im not writing this for a personal pitty party. I love what I do. But, the attitude in this paragraph is frustrating and does nothing to further the discussion. 

If you want an example of how a CEO does or doesn’t make the company money, study up on what is happening at GE. It was a very well ran company till the current CEO took over. Now it’s being ran so poorly that it’s not even represented in the DOW anymore. 

EVERYONE in the company does an important job to make it successful. 

 
BigRedBuster said:
We can discuss wage gaps all day long and we probably would agree with some areas. 

But, I couldn’t let this paragraph go by without commenting. 

Im a CEO of a company and I care deeply about everyone in the company as do one hell of a lot of CEOs. 

First off, if I’m taking orders or filling orders, why do I need people like you working in my warehouse?  Are you going to quit so the CEO can do your job?  

Second, as an example of why I’m not in the warehouse filing orders, I left home on Sunday to spend valuable time representing our company at industry meetings which have built a good reputation amongst current and potential customers....you know....those people whose orders get filled?  I’m sitting in the Dallas airport....still not home. 

Also, I spend a hell of a lot of time on financing issues that allow us to pay wages for people in warehouses and to fund growth which allows us vto hire more people. 

I started in this company at the lowest level and worked hard at every level to get here and I still put in long hours away from family to manage the company so it is successful for everyone. 

Im not writing this for a personal pitty party. I love what I do. But, the attitude in this paragraph is frustrating and does nothing to further the discussion. 

If you want an example of how a CEO does or doesn’t make the company money, study up on what is happening at GE. It was a very well ran company till the current CEO took over. Now it’s being ran so poorly that it’s not even represented in the DOW anymore. 

EVERYONE in the company does an important job to make it successful. 
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I think you're confusing small to medium sized businesses with large corporations. I've worked at several Fortune 500 companies and you could have laid off half the execs and probably increased productivity and certainly increased morale.

Of course every company is different, but you'd need a mountain of evidence to convince me any CEO is worth 1000x any employee.

 
NUance said:
The better question might be:  Is it appropriate to put a picture of Joseph Stalin up when people are advocating what amounts to communism?  lol   :D   
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Nobody has advocated for communism that I recall. Is anybody even suggesting a different system than capitalism? As far as I can recall, there's only been posts about adding socialist concepts to improve the capitalist system.

 
RedDenver said:
Nobody has advocated for communism that I recall. Is anybody even suggesting a different system than capitalism? As far as I can recall, there's only been posts about adding socialist concepts to improve the capitalist system.
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What's the matter, did we lose our sense of humor?

 
BigRedBuster said:
We can discuss wage gaps all day long and we probably would agree with some areas. 

But, I couldn’t let this paragraph go by without commenting. 

Im a CEO of a company and I care deeply about everyone in the company as do one hell of a lot of CEOs. 

First off, if I’m taking orders or filling orders, why do I need people like you working in my warehouse?  Are you going to quit so the CEO can do your job?  

Second, as an example of why I’m not in the warehouse filing orders, I left home on Sunday to spend valuable time representing our company at industry meetings which have built a good reputation amongst current and potential customers....you know....those people whose orders get filled?  I’m sitting in the Dallas airport....still not home. 

Also, I spend a hell of a lot of time on financing issues that allow us to pay wages for people in warehouses and to fund growth which allows us vto hire more people. 

I started in this company at the lowest level and worked hard at every level to get here and I still put in long hours away from family to manage the company so it is successful for everyone. 

Im not writing this for a personal pitty party. I love what I do. But, the attitude in this paragraph is frustrating and does nothing to further the discussion. 

If you want an example of how a CEO does or doesn’t make the company money, study up on what is happening at GE. It was a very well ran company till the current CEO took over. Now it’s being ran so poorly that it’s not even represented in the DOW anymore. 

EVERYONE in the company does an important job to make it successful. 
Click to expand...


If everyone does an "important job" within the company, then why are people at the bottom paid so little relative to those at the top?

 
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