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Average mid level programmer in our country will have to work 190+ years for this amount of money. [edit] Now, I think I should focus on other things. Average
by new_user_final 3y ago
Average mid level programmer in our country will have to work 190+ years for this amount of money.
[edit]
Now, I think I should focus on other things. Average politicians can earn (/s) 50x more money in 5 years than what average programer earns in 190+ years.
- dr_dshiv 3y agoHow do they do that? I’ve never understood how US politicians make money
- freedomben 3y agoMostly insider trading. Real estate and stocks especially. For long sitting politicians, they usually do this through family members. Some also clean up by taking huge speaking fees for giving speeches, but only those at the top with heavy celebrity power. Can you usually pull this one off.
- bionsystem 3y agoWow, not even sure how to answer to that, but insider trading is illegal. So you either implying that they are all crooks, or that they could do that if they wanted but in the latter case that doesn't answer the question of how they make their money.
- skyechurch 3y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_trading_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_t...
- askonomm 3y agoI thought it was common knowledge that politicians are crooks. There's even information out there on politicians trading patterns, and how they very often seem to buy or sell certain stock right before a huge news affecting that stock comes out.
- satellite2 3y agoIf it was so easy to prove it would be enforced. You can't have it both ways.
- d1sxeyes 3y agoBuying and selling stock is one thing, how do you prove it is insider trading though?
- Gyrantula 3y ago>If it was so easy to prove it would be enforced What makes you think that?
- fennecbutt 3y agoRich and powerful people don't do time, lmao.
- yawpitch 3y agoHate to break it to you — and hate even more to point you at a link behind a paywall — but legislators (and especially their family) indirectly trading on what they learn in their “work” isn’t, legally speaking, insider trading, and while it is now technically illegal getting members of Congress on either side to effectively police their own behavior has proven (shockingly) ineffective. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/13/us/politics/congress-stock-trading-investigation.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/13/us/politics/c...
- jjeaff 3y agoya, but they aren't really making money insider trading. at least in aggregate. full analysis of their trades usually show an underperforming portfolio, despite grandiose articles that claim the opposite, which just cherry pick a few successful trades and ignore the bad and mediocre ones. It's mostly power brokering and it's the same way rich people and their children get and stay rich. Money flows to those with money because people want to buy influence and power.
- yawpitch 3y agoTop 10 congressional performers last year beat the S&P 500 by at least 200%, in the top case by nearly 1000%… that doesn’t appear to be cherry-picking a few successful trades. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12930805/Members-Congress-money-trading-stocks-2023-Nancy-Pelosi.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12930805/Members-Co...
- kasey_junk 3y agoThat’s not what the linked story says. It says that the top case beat the market by 200% and that it was through an Nvidia position purchased 4 years ago. The Congress person in question hasn’t made a single trade in the last 3 years. The 10th best position was 63% better than the s&p. That’s just a touch better than keeping your money in qqq. There might be evidence of congressional insider trading but the bare numbers aren’t it. In a population of 540 people you’d probably find similar outliers to what that article outlines.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ioblomov 3y agoGuessing insider trading and speaking fees pale in comparison to brokering power through access and horse trading. As a simple example, LBJ got rich by getting radio/TV licenses and opening stations.
- ksjskskskkk 3y agothe inside trading is a way to mislead useful idiots. you're just eating too many tiktoks about senators month old trading reports. they get rich the old way, literal bags of money. you cannot win a big construction job without bags of money that go from the engineer to the govt inspector, then the inspector to the mayor, then to the governor. if you did up anything paid by tax, you will find that foundations are always missing several meters of concrete that are in the plan and paid for.
- swarnie 3y agoGet paid a six figure sum to give the opening ten minute speech at XYZ banks yearly conference.
- Lutzb 3y agoI never understood how speech fees could be seen as anything else than direct bribes.
- notahacker 3y agoMarket prices for famous speakers who don't have any conceivable effect on a bank's future regulation are also very high.
- d1sxeyes 3y ago“See how we look after folks who treat us well.”
- notahacker 3y agoYou're missing the explanation of how the non-political celebs also charging fees in the >$100k bracket "looked after" anyone. If celebrity speakers aren't worth anywhere near that, what are banks and multinationals and industry events bribing ex-sports coaches and actors for? And of course even the politicians get paid by a lot of entities that aren't obvious beneficiaries. Boris Johnson might be as sleazy as former PMs get, but I'm really struggling to understand any quid pro quo with the Indian newspaper or Portuguese TV channel that both paid him north of $250k for a single keynote, and I don't think he ever had much influence on insurance brokers in Colorado either
- DANmode 3y agoYou don't think there's quid pro quo in the entertainment industries?! Sheesh. Not even worth debating.
- new_user_final 3y agoIt's not US. I have mentioned, it is equivalent of 190+ years of salary. Let's say a pillow cost $2, a contractor will charge $600. 10 politicians will get $550 dollars and the contractor will keep $50.
- dr_dshiv 3y agoPersonally, I like the Singaporean model where they pay their politicians a lot of money in salaries. It seems like such an obvious way to get higher quality talent with less corruption. I vaguely recall that the US president makes 1/4 what George Washington made in salary (with inflation). Congresspersons and Senators should be paid well for their service, given the importance of their job. Of course, this is an unpopular idea.
- junofan 3y agoA flat $1MM/yr for all 2.87 million federal employees is only 2.87 tn. Could produce some interesting results.
- Snow_Falls 3y agoI'm of the opinion that politicians above a certain level (in the UK: prime minister, members of Parliament and maybe mayors) should just get a permenant annuity for the rest of their lives on the condition that they can't make money from anything else, ever. No stocks, no "speaking engagements" or do nothing bribery jobs. It would be expensive yes, but cheaper than the cost of corruption. Maybe have the value of the annuity be based of rank, MP gets 300k/y and PM gets 500k/y.
- junofan 3y agoAppreciate the British perspective. I don’t think that would work in the US; the people at the top are the rainmakers for their parties, and the party will take care of them somehow. Rather I think it’s more interesting in a knowledge economy to use the money printer to move talented people into public service who otherwise would’ve wasted their lives in the private sector positioning themselves as close as possible to the money printer (while also setting a high floor price for their services).
- charlieyu1 3y agoNourish integrity high salary. At least it worked in Hong Kong for a while.