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[Royal☭]

Which just goes back to my advocating for the abolition of rich people.

[Brentai]

Define "rich people".

[Caithness]

People who make more then $500,000 per year, or have more than $1.8 Million net worth.

[Mongrel]

Which just goes back to my advocating for the abolition of rich people.

Damn'd Abolitionist!

[Thad]

It's a fair point -- like capping debit card fees on small businesses resulting in increased debit card fees for individual customers.  People who are making shit-tons of money are not going to settle for making a dime less if they can avoid it.

Part of the problem is that the bank bailout didn't include restrictions.  Shit like this is utterly predictable.

Ditto the debit card fees.  Everybody knew that was going to happen.

[Mongrel]

I think there's a limit to what you can cap in response though. I mean you can add restriction B, Q, and 7a, but the company will just find some other way to charge people more - unless you actually bring in hard price controls, and that pretty much means we've all failed.

But I don't know - what are the root factors here? Are they something that we can even affect meaningfully?

[sei]

I think there's a limit to what you can cap in response though. I mean you can add restriction B, Q, and 7a, but the company will just find some other way to charge people more - unless you actually bring in hard price controls, and that pretty much means we've all failed.

But I don't know - what are the root factors here? Are they something that we can even affect meaningfully?

I think the issue is that those CEOs and others are being assessed as incredibly profitable/useful. In order to do anything about that, you'd need to somehow flatten everyone's socio-economic and academic opportunities, so that there's a bigger competetive pool to draw CEOs from.

Things get hairy. You know the deal. "Everyone should have an equally good x" manifests as "everyone must have an equally shitty x."

[Royal☭]

No, the solution is to get rid of the CEOs. If the case of them needing to maintain their enormous salary is the problem while the company is able to maintain itself IN SPITE of their work, they're totally superfluous. We're living in a period where workers and supervisors can run a company, but we still give up large chunks of our salaries to people at the top because of ???

[Catloaf]

Which just goes back to my advocating for the abolition of rich people.

So you guys can say this sort of thing, but when I say it [spoiler]in what should be recognized as gross hyperbole[/spoiler] everyone thinks I want to murder people.

 

[Mongrel]

No, the solution is to get rid of the CEOs. If the case of them needing to maintain their enormous salary is the problem while the company is able to maintain itself IN SPITE of their work, they're totally superfluous. We're living in a period where workers and supervisors can run a company, but we still give up large chunks of our salaries to people at the top because of ???

Steve Jobs may have been an asshole, but he is probably one of the clearest examples of the pot of gold companies are chasing.

Frenzied speculation has risen in just about every field imaginable in the past decade. Companies speculating on CEOs are no different.

(I'm oversimplifying and that's far from the whole story, but you get the idea).

[Royal☭]

Do you really think Steve Jobs created the iPhone?

[Mongrel]

You're missing the point. It's not about what these people actually do.

It's about what companies (and, arguably more importantly, the market), think they will do.

That's where overcompensation comes in.

[Joxam]

Which just goes back to my advocating for the abolition of rich people.

So you guys can say this sort of thing, but when I say it [spoiler]in what should be recognized as gross hyperbole[/spoiler] everyone thinks I want to murder people.

 

I know this might be a small detail that you can't grasp, but the difference here is that Constantine didn't say he wanted to murder anyone... Nor did he say he wanted to murder their families.

[Brentai]

Interestingly enough, Steve Jobs was the best AND the absolute worst rich man in America.

On the one hand, he waived his CEO salary.  He took a symbolic dollar for it.  And of course CEO salaries are meaningless anyway.

On the other hand, he took PLENTY of shares, and went to the grave with about 7 billion over his head.  And here's what he did with all that money:


Nothing.


The useless fucker barely invested outside of his own companies, only grew jobs within his own companies enough to account for growth, and didn't even buy shit for himself.  No good clothing, no home improvements, barely any travel expenses.  Zero charitable donations until people started taking note of the fact that he wasn't much of a philanthropist.  I guess he paid a few bucks for that unlicensed Mercedes he always parked in the handicapped spot.  Oh, and for the last laugh, he evaded THE SHIT out of the estate tax which is kind of fine because it's grisly to think of taxing the dead, but even so it was one final act of "Ha ha this seven billion dollars will never see distribution within the economy, ever."

Jobs is just one jerk, sure, but there are a lot more like him.  Together they're hoarding about 25% of the nation's total currency and are totally ready to go fuck up Laketown if anyone dares to take so much as a cup from them.  The economy's ruined DuckTales for me, because now I can picture and eccentric millionaire keeping all his cash locked up in one place just to use as a swimming pool and that's not fucking funny anymore.

So the next time you hear somebody say "The rich spend and it trickles down", punch that person in the face and say "THAT WAS THIRTY YEARS AGO, AND THIS IS THE iBILLIONAIRE GENERATION."

[Royal☭]

Just a quick note.

Oh, and for the last laugh, he evaded THE SHIT out of the estate tax which is kind of fine because it's grisly to think of taxing the dead, but even so it was one final act of "Ha ha this seven billion dollars will never see distribution within the economy, ever."

1) The Estate Tax was created to prevent the creation of a permanent aristocratic class. Hence why the rich motherfuckers went after it WITH A VENGEANCE once Bush took office
2) Who gives a shit if you "tax the dead"? They're fucking dead.
3) The people actually taxed are the heirs who did nothing to gain the massive amounts of wealth they'll be getting. Inherited money usually goes into the hands of people who are far more greedy and openly hostile than the person who originally accumulated it. For example, see the Waltons.

[Mongrel]

The problem is that the estate tax can be effectively circumvented by just buying your kids a ton of shit while they're alive. Rich folks are already cottoning on to that as it is.

Not that I disagree with Estate Taxes or the idea behind them.

[Thad]

Do you really think Steve Jobs created the iPhone?

I think he sold it.

Interestingly enough, Steve Jobs was the best AND the absolute worst rich man in America.

On the one hand, he waived his CEO salary.  He took a symbolic dollar for it.  And of course CEO salaries are meaningless anyway.

On the other hand, he took PLENTY of shares, and went to the grave with about 7 billion over his head.  And here's what he did with all that money:


Nothing.

Honest to Christ, Bill Gates looks better all the time.

Not to mention Buffett and Turner.

So the next time you hear somebody say "The rich spend and it trickles down", punch that person in the face and say "THAT WAS THIRTY YEARS AGO, AND THIS IS THE iBILLIONAIRE GENERATION."

I assume we're just pretending that it worked 30 years ago to humor this person, right?

[Brentai]

Well, yes.  If you go full-on chip on your shoulder you'll never ever get through to them.

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend.  A Republican said that.

[Büge]

You're missing the point. It's not about what these people actually do.

It's about what companies (and, arguably more importantly, the market), think they will do.

That's where overcompensation comes in.

Companies aren't people.

[Mongrel]

Who wants to tell him?