3 ms·
Reminds me of the Chicago professor who was complaining about repealing the tax breaks for "rich" people[1] (his household income was in the 250k range). As a b
by duke_sam 16y ago
Reminds me of the Chicago professor who was complaining about repealing the tax breaks for "rich" people[1] (his household income was in the 250k range). As a bunch of commentators pointed out he felt like he was just scraping by because he was attempting to live the life of someone earning 350k+ not the life of someone earning 150k+.
A growing trend is how quickly the income of those at the top is increasing relative to those at the bottom[2] and the disconnect this brings[3]. At what point does someone earning minimum wage stop and think "How exactly is someone working in a hedge fun worth tens of thousands of me in yearly salary alone?". Would they push for legislative solutions? Can you even use something as blunt as the tax code for this?
[1] His blog posts were taken down but you can see commentary:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/todd-henderson-rich_n_732813.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/todd-henderson-rich...
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/in-defense-of-the-self-pitying-wealthy-poor/63777/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/in-defen...
[2]http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/ceo-pay-historic-lead-bestbosses08-cx_sd_0430flash.html http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/ceo-pay-historic-lead-bestb... - for reference $1 in 1989 is worth around $1.70 now so inflation does not account for a near 6x increase.
[3]http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-rise-of-the-new-global-elite/8343/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-rise...
- mdda 16y agoMinimum wage for a year is approximately $10k. Ten thousand times that is $100MM. Hedge Fund salaries are not of that order - topping out at $10MM. I agree that Hedge Fund bonuses can be large, but as far as the fixed salary component goes, the person on minimum wage in your example is misinformed.