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symbioidljSo we were having this discussion at work today, and it got me worked up now, so I'm gonna post.
I don't think someone should be allowed to be a billionaire, let alone a multi-billionaire. Call me someone who believes in a sense of fairness or the puritan work ethic or something. But this is my thinking on the subject(at least part of it)
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Now, let's imagine that someone makes a million dollars a year(I know that the CEO's usually get the money in stock options, not cold hard cash, but the stock options can be upwards of 100 million!) But let's assume "only" a million bucks in compensation for their work. Now let's be generous, and say they work really hard and bust their ass 24 hours a day, no sleep, nothing. And they work 7 days a week. No weekends. No holidays. Just straight all year round. That's 8,760 hours worth of work(24 * 365) I'm just willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they put in that much labor. So how much money does this come to per hour? $114.16
That's assuming they're busting their ass as hard as possible. That's assuming they can't squeeze any more work into a day. Now, the average wage earner, according to this site from the SSA: National Average Wage Index The average wage earner in the US made $32,921.92 Well, let's give the average worker the benefit of the doubt and round that up to say $35,000... now, let's say he's a slacker, and he's only working 8 hours a day, and he's only working the weekdays. No holidays, to make things simple. 40 hrs/wk. * 4 wks/mo. * 12 mos/yr... (I know it doesn't calculate like that, but I'm trying to make it fair for the CEO, I wouldn't wanna be biased) 40hrs * 48 weeks = 1920... If I calculated it like 40 * 52 weeks it would come 2080 hours worked. But I'm trying to balance things here.
So, we're letting the lazy worker only work 1920 hours a year... Let's divide that into 35k... That's $18.00/hr... That's being generous, in actuality, it comes to more like $15.98 But let's say the worker is busting his ass like that.
So, you mean to tell me that the average worker only makes $18.00/hr, and the millionaire makes $114.16... And that's not the actual math! If I took 1 million and divided it by 1920(oh, I know they have to work all that overtime and everything, but to make things equal): The CEO makes $520/hr. But, I'm being nice here. Do you mean to tell me the CEO works 10 times as hard as the average worker? That the CEO, even factoring in all those extra days, and making the worker lazy as hell, still deserves that much money? Let's imagine the worker worked that 24 hours/day that the CEO did... 8760 hours into 35000 = $4.00/hr...
OK, so let's assume someone makes $114 bucks an hour. That's fucking nuts. And that's just for a million bucks. Now, someone has a billion dollars. That's a thousand times a million dollars. That means they'd have to work a thousand years to earn as much as they did in that one year, at $114/hr non-stop all day 365 days year. All compressed into the few puny years they've lived on this earth. So that's like saying they've earned 1000 times as much per hour in one year(and of course, these guys are multibillionaires, but let's keep it simple. with just one billion bucks) But of course, it's not all in one year, it's spread out over say... Well, let's give them til the ripe ol' age of 100 to have earned a billion dollars. Take that 1 million and multiply it by 100. 100 million. That's how much they've earned in their life working at 114 hours/day all year long no breaks. You still need to multiply that by 10 to get 1000 million or 1 billion. So that means they need to earn ten times as much: $1,140/hour. And that's saying they've worked 100 fucking years since they were born! Does anyone EVER work so hard as to actually earn $1,140/hr? And of course let's look at those multibillionaires. They have like 20 billion or more(Gates was 52 billion last time I looked, but that was quite a while ago) So in actuality, working nonstop for a hundred years you'd have to make $22,800/hour to make 20 billion dollars. That's BULLSHIT! And that's why billionaires are fucking wrong and NO-ONE should have a billion dollars.
End of Story!
I don't think someone should be allowed to be a billionaire, let alone a multi-billionaire. Call me someone who believes in a sense of fairness or the puritan work ethic or something. But this is my thinking on the subject(at least part of it)
---
Now, let's imagine that someone makes a million dollars a year(I know that the CEO's usually get the money in stock options, not cold hard cash, but the stock options can be upwards of 100 million!) But let's assume "only" a million bucks in compensation for their work. Now let's be generous, and say they work really hard and bust their ass 24 hours a day, no sleep, nothing. And they work 7 days a week. No weekends. No holidays. Just straight all year round. That's 8,760 hours worth of work(24 * 365) I'm just willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they put in that much labor. So how much money does this come to per hour? $114.16
That's assuming they're busting their ass as hard as possible. That's assuming they can't squeeze any more work into a day. Now, the average wage earner, according to this site from the SSA: National Average Wage Index The average wage earner in the US made $32,921.92 Well, let's give the average worker the benefit of the doubt and round that up to say $35,000... now, let's say he's a slacker, and he's only working 8 hours a day, and he's only working the weekdays. No holidays, to make things simple. 40 hrs/wk. * 4 wks/mo. * 12 mos/yr... (I know it doesn't calculate like that, but I'm trying to make it fair for the CEO, I wouldn't wanna be biased) 40hrs * 48 weeks = 1920... If I calculated it like 40 * 52 weeks it would come 2080 hours worked. But I'm trying to balance things here.
So, we're letting the lazy worker only work 1920 hours a year... Let's divide that into 35k... That's $18.00/hr... That's being generous, in actuality, it comes to more like $15.98 But let's say the worker is busting his ass like that.
So, you mean to tell me that the average worker only makes $18.00/hr, and the millionaire makes $114.16... And that's not the actual math! If I took 1 million and divided it by 1920(oh, I know they have to work all that overtime and everything, but to make things equal): The CEO makes $520/hr. But, I'm being nice here. Do you mean to tell me the CEO works 10 times as hard as the average worker? That the CEO, even factoring in all those extra days, and making the worker lazy as hell, still deserves that much money? Let's imagine the worker worked that 24 hours/day that the CEO did... 8760 hours into 35000 = $4.00/hr...
OK, so let's assume someone makes $114 bucks an hour. That's fucking nuts. And that's just for a million bucks. Now, someone has a billion dollars. That's a thousand times a million dollars. That means they'd have to work a thousand years to earn as much as they did in that one year, at $114/hr non-stop all day 365 days year. All compressed into the few puny years they've lived on this earth. So that's like saying they've earned 1000 times as much per hour in one year(and of course, these guys are multibillionaires, but let's keep it simple. with just one billion bucks) But of course, it's not all in one year, it's spread out over say... Well, let's give them til the ripe ol' age of 100 to have earned a billion dollars. Take that 1 million and multiply it by 100. 100 million. That's how much they've earned in their life working at 114 hours/day all year long no breaks. You still need to multiply that by 10 to get 1000 million or 1 billion. So that means they need to earn ten times as much: $1,140/hour. And that's saying they've worked 100 fucking years since they were born! Does anyone EVER work so hard as to actually earn $1,140/hr? And of course let's look at those multibillionaires. They have like 20 billion or more(Gates was 52 billion last time I looked, but that was quite a while ago) So in actuality, working nonstop for a hundred years you'd have to make $22,800/hour to make 20 billion dollars. That's BULLSHIT! And that's why billionaires are fucking wrong and NO-ONE should have a billion dollars.
End of Story!
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Hmm...
Date: 2003-02-04 08:59 pm (UTC)The person making 1 Mil a year is also paying $400,000 in taxes to the government each year, vs the $6,000 the person making $35k pays.
The price difference isn't from the effort put forth but usually from supply/demand. A lot of people can work their ass off pushing papers all day, but very few can be brain surgeons. Thus, brain surgeons can make more. Simple economics.
Most billionaires are paper billionaires. They're only "worth" a billion dollars, they don't actually "have" a billion dollars. If their company stock prices dive or go under, they stand to "lose" billions. In essence, they don't really lose anything, because they never physically had it to begin with, it wasn't a liquid asset. You have to separate a person's worth from their yearly salary. A person can make $35k a year, but be worth well over a million with investments.
Usually billionaires give a lot of money to charities. The Gates' for example have given many many millions to a number of charitable causes.
Hmmm...so equal pay to everyone who works an equal amount? A type of Communism perhaps?
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Of course, having said all that, I tend to agree w/ you. It's slightly rediculous to have that much money, even if it's just paper, since there's no way you can spend it all. And regardless of how much money Billy Gates gives to charities, he's still the devil. ;) But it's fun to debate either way. :P
-Brent
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2003-02-04 11:31 pm (UTC)A few years ago a Maori activist took to the cup with a sledge hammer. It's repair in London was front page news here.
Basically I'm not against billionaires perse, but rather the ridiculous causes they put their wealth towards...
no subject
Date: 2003-02-15 07:12 pm (UTC)But yet, while they're sitting pretty, we're over here making $15K/yr for a three person family, and that is before taxes making 11.50 an hour (I'm pretty sure I calculated it right). Fuck all that. They need to quit taxing middle and lower class so God damned much. Hell...after Federal Taxes, State Taxes, County taxes, medical insurance, life insurance, and etc coming out of our fukin paycheck...oh yeah..lets not forget union dues....we're on the upper side of poor...They need to tax us less and tax them more...but then again...if they did that...then the richies would be screaming because they're not only loosing chump change, but they would say they were being singled out.