7 ms·

The claim is that you want the CEO to be aligned with the shareholders, and therefore you incentivize them with high salaries. Who cares about future sharehold

The claim is that you want the CEO to be aligned with the shareholders, and therefore you incentivize them with high salaries. Who cares about future shareholders or consequences for that matter when you earn 225MM ? Go move to some country that doesn't tax capital gains, sell it all, and live on 4% of it, which is 9MM per year; live like a king, buy absurd amounts of land and multiply your passive income. Obscene is an understatement.

ethanbond 3y ago
Not to mention you can keep CEOs “aligned with shareholders” by firing them if they behave in ways that are misaligned.
- PartiallyTyped 3y ago
  CEOs usually don't join without a golden parachute, and shareholders seem to only care about immediate gains. To see the insanity, Selipsky in Q1 AWS all hands was talking about growth of the rate of growth, i.e. second order. Not steady income, not income increasing (which is already exponential across years), but super-exponential; i.e. 20% , then 25%, then 30% growth. Who cares about sustainable and organic growth! We have to milk those pesky engineers and all our customers!
vouaobrasil 3y ago
That makes sense to you and me but...if the world were only populated by people who were happy to just have enough to live a comfortable life as soon as they could, or even a very rich life as soon as they could cash out, then we would not have half the insanity we do today. And Sundar Pinchai and other CEOs could have quit a long time ago if they wanted to do that. If I were in the place of ANY CEO today of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, of course I would quit immediately with far LESS money and do something else....but they don't, speaking of the incredible pathology that lies within them.
s1artibartfast 3y ago
You can't move countries to avoid capital gains.
- JJMcJ 3y ago
  What often happens is that corporation in high tax country has subsidiary in low tax country that they find a way to funnel profits too. Not sure on details myself. It has to be done just right. I believe Ireland and the Netherlands are often host countries. Now this is different than money laundering, which is big time illegal, of course.
  - seneca 3y ago
    > What often happens is that corporation in high tax country has subsidiary in low tax country that they find a way to funnel profits too. That has nothing to do with individual taxes.
  - s1artibartfast 3y ago
    I think you're talking about the double Irish corporate inversion loophole, which applied to multinational companies, and was closed 10 years ago. As a US individual you get taxed no matter where in the world you live, and you must pay capital gains on all of your assets before giving up citizenship
    - JJMcJ 3y ago
      I believe the Netherlands one, which I don't fully understand, is still in place.
- PartiallyTyped 3y ago
  Why not? I know in Poland I am not taxed until I sell the stock; and if I am out of the country for X amount of time, I am not considered a taxed resident. I am fairly certain the US is different, but I know that I can do that in Europe.
- ultrasaurus 3y ago
jimbob45 3y ago
I guess the counterargument would be that the $225MM is imaginary money - he doesn’t actually make that much until he cashes out and cashing out at the wrong times is what we should actually condemn. That said, the rules for stock, stock ownership, and splits are all made up on the fly anyway so I don’t want to defend any of this. Stock dilution in particular seems like legal theft.

ethanbond 3y ago

Not to mention you can keep CEOs “aligned with shareholders” by firing them if they behave in ways that are misaligned.

PartiallyTyped 3y ago
CEOs usually don't join without a golden parachute, and shareholders seem to only care about immediate gains. To see the insanity, Selipsky in Q1 AWS all hands was talking about growth of the rate of growth, i.e. second order. Not steady income, not income increasing (which is already exponential across years), but super-exponential; i.e. 20% , then 25%, then 30% growth. Who cares about sustainable and organic growth! We have to milk those pesky engineers and all our customers!

vouaobrasil 3y ago

That makes sense to you and me but...if the world were only populated by people who were happy to just have enough to live a comfortable life as soon as they could, or even a very rich life as soon as they could cash out, then we would not have half the insanity we do today. And Sundar Pinchai and other CEOs could have quit a long time ago if they wanted to do that. If I were in the place of ANY CEO today of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, of course I would quit immediately with far LESS money and do something else....but they don't, speaking of the incredible pathology that lies within them.

s1artibartfast 3y ago

You can't move countries to avoid capital gains.

JJMcJ 3y ago
What often happens is that corporation in high tax country has subsidiary in low tax country that they find a way to funnel profits too. Not sure on details myself. It has to be done just right. I believe Ireland and the Netherlands are often host countries. Now this is different than money laundering, which is big time illegal, of course.
- seneca 3y ago
  > What often happens is that corporation in high tax country has subsidiary in low tax country that they find a way to funnel profits too. That has nothing to do with individual taxes.
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  I think you're talking about the double Irish corporate inversion loophole, which applied to multinational companies, and was closed 10 years ago. As a US individual you get taxed no matter where in the world you live, and you must pay capital gains on all of your assets before giving up citizenship
  - JJMcJ 3y ago
    I believe the Netherlands one, which I don't fully understand, is still in place.
PartiallyTyped 3y ago
Why not? I know in Poland I am not taxed until I sell the stock; and if I am out of the country for X amount of time, I am not considered a taxed resident. I am fairly certain the US is different, but I know that I can do that in Europe.
ultrasaurus 3y ago

jimbob45 3y ago

I guess the counterargument would be that the $225MM is imaginary money - he doesn’t actually make that much until he cashes out and cashing out at the wrong times is what we should actually condemn. That said, the rules for stock, stock ownership, and splits are all made up on the fly anyway so I don’t want to defend any of this. Stock dilution in particular seems like legal theft.