New York Times: Executive Pay Soars in 2010

[Booharv]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/bu...comp.html?_r=1

[mojorizen7]

Disgusting.
Meanwhile,in order for these CEO's and their "buddies" who were handed VP of Nothing positions.....the folks that work the hardest in many of these companies had their healthcare benefits rewired.....the cost inflated with less benefits,positions taken away or restructered for lesser pay and market increase pay raises dissappeared.

CEO's are basically given a free pass to squeeze its core workforce and drastically cut costs using the "sluggish economy" as an excuse(far beyond whats necessary)......thus in turn,the rich get richer at the expense of the little man at the frontlines.

[Wild Cobra]

Instead of complaining about the rich, why not study hard and become one of them?

If some of you would put in as much positive effort in personal growth as you do complaining, you'd be millionaires.

[boutons_deux]

"why not study hard"

Economic mobility is way down in UCA.

born rich, stay rich, born poor, stay poor.

It's not what you know or what you can do, it's which $50K/year school your parents can afford to send you to and who their/your friends are.

Now the Repugs are trying to shut door for poor people by killing Pell, etc grants and scholarships, while Wall St-financed, predatory, tax-payer-subsidized, for-profit "colleges" rip off the kids while graduating only 25% of them with useless diplomas while leaving them in debt and jobless.

The premium achievable with a college education is way down vs 25 years ago.

[Sisk]

I hate the wealthy

why can't live be easier?! stupid repugs and their dumb FAUX news

[MannyIsGod]

I was actually going to troll this thread when i saw it but it looks like Sisk and WC beat me to it. Sadly, they actually believe what I was going to use to troll.

[greyforest]

Instead of complaining about the rich, why not study hard and become one of them?

If some of you would put in as much positive effort in personal growth as you do complaining, you'd be millionaires.

Here's the bootstraps argument; assuming that almost anyone has the capability of becoming millionaires is so re ed I don't even know where to start.

Society cannot consist entirely of millionaire employers. There needs to be employees and unskilled laborers for any society to function. Without regulation, these people invariably become poor / wage slaves, and eventually if things are bad enough the society collapses when the general population's quality of life is too low.

[Kermit]

Great blog about Pete Thiel and the education bubble.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/pet...8TechCrunch%29

[Sisk]

I was actually going to troll this thread when i saw it but it looks like Sisk and WC beat me to it. Sadly, they actually believe what I was going to use to troll.

If you think boutons doesn't have wealth envy, you're as crazy as he is.

[MannyIsGod]

I've never seen Boutons say anything about wanting to be rich like these CEOS. He points out they are corrupt in a....colorful....way but that doesn't mean he has "wealth envy".

[DarkReign]

I've never seen Boutons say anything about wanting to be rich like these CEOS. He points out they are corrupt in a....colorful....way but that doesn't mean he has "wealth envy".

I agree with that. Boutons is certainly a partisan hack, but it doesnt come across as envy of any kind to me. Hes a socialist/populist, simple really.

[DarkReign]

Furthermore, I find it interesting that anybody that points out the disparate pay of the wealthiest citizens as unequal automatically gets labeled as jealous.

Far from, gents. The "if you cant beat em, join em" mentality is complicit to the inherent problem. Its just a personal decision everyone has to make with their opportunities and greed wins 99.9999999% of the time.

Youre never going to see anyone and complain about making too much money, unless they are a personally wealthy politician grandstanding for the cameras.

Its human nature and it isnt always right.

[xellos88330]

Did you think they would take a pay cut or something? You know how much insurance is on a ferrari?

[CuckingFunt]

Instead of complaining about the rich, why not study hard and become one of them?

If some of you would put in as much positive effort in personal growth as you do complaining, you'd be millionaires.

Don't even know where to begin with this post. Since someone already stole the bootstraps theory thunder, however...


You're horribly wrong to assume that those who aren't rich haven't studied hard. Or that those who are rich have. Perhaps if you were to extend your own ignorant assumptions on the connection between success and effort, you would see the problem with the bootstraps model of social mobility -- it becomes incredibly difficult to pull yourself out of poverty through hard work when people automatically see the fact you're poor as a sign that you're unwilling to work hard.

[phxspurfan]

Here's the bootstraps argument; assuming that almost anyone has the capability of becoming millionaires is so re ed I don't even know where to start.

Society cannot consist entirely of millionaire employers. There needs to be employees and unskilled laborers for any society to function. Without regulation, these people invariably become poor / wage slaves, and eventually if things are bad enough the society collapses when the general population's quality of life is too low.

This strikes me as a defeatist capitalist point of view. Everyone is born unskilled. Those who have the desire/interest to develop skills hike to the TWC/<insert any number of social programs/resources here> to read and practice interviewing. /poliforum

And somebody hasn't seen Star Trek, where they have eliminated famine on Earth, thanks to this dude

[DMC]

Supply vs demand. When the demand for what you do increases that much, and the supply is so small, you can get a lot for it. Basketball players make a of a lot more for barely knowing how to spell their own names, hanging at clubs, shooting each other and putting a leather ball into a hole. Talk about born into it, how many short, rich white kids end up in the NBA? Exactly.

There's no reason to worry about what CEO's make. There's plenty of room to grow your own income.

[DMC]

Don't even know where to begin with this post. Since someone already stole the bootstraps theory thunder, however...


You're horribly wrong to assume that those who aren't rich haven't studied hard. Or that those who are rich have. Perhaps if you were to extend your own ignorant assumptions on the connection between success and effort, you would see the problem with the bootstraps model of social mobility -- it becomes incredibly difficult to pull yourself out of poverty through hard work when people automatically see the fact you're poor as a sign that you're unwilling to work hard.

As someone who was born dirt poor, I understand what you are saying, and it hasn't changed since I was a kid. However, there are many more opportunities these days than there were then, especially if you were fortunate enough to be raised in an urban or suburban area. Being raised in the boonies makes it damn near impossible to do anything without joining the military just to get a ticket out of there.

There's a huge disparity between the choices the wealthy kids have over the choices the poor kids have, but that's an aspect of poverty. If it was the same either way, what's the point of being wealthy? I never liked it, but then I don't like cold weather either and I have about the same amount of power to stop either.

[Agloco]

Here's the bootstraps argument; assuming that almost anyone has the capability of becoming millionaires is so re ed I don't even know where to start.

Society cannot consist entirely of millionaire employers. There needs to be employees and unskilled laborers for any society to function. Without regulation, these people invariably become poor / wage slaves, and eventually if things are bad enough the society collapses when the general population's quality of life is too low.

This strikes me as a defeatist capitalist point of view. Everyone is born unskilled. Those who have the desire/interest to develop skills hike to the TWC/<insert any number of social programs/resources here> to read and practice interviewing. /poliforum

And somebody hasn't seen Star Trek, where they have eliminated famine on Earth, thanks to this dude

Desire/Interest <is not equal to> being capable

[Wild Cobra]

Here's the bootstraps argument; assuming that almost anyone has the capability of becoming millionaires is so re ed I don't even know where to start.

Society cannot consist entirely of millionaire employers. There needs to be employees and unskilled laborers for any society to function. Without regulation, these people invariably become poor / wage slaves, and eventually if things are bad enough the society collapses when the general population's quality of life is too low.

You're right, but those who do not strive to better themselves will stay at the bottom.

[Wild Cobra]

Don't even know where to begin with this post. Since someone already stole the bootstraps theory thunder, however...


You're horribly wrong to assume that those who aren't rich haven't studied hard. Or that those who are rich have. Perhaps if you were to extend your own ignorant assumptions on the connection between success and effort, you would see the problem with the bootstraps model of social mobility -- it becomes incredibly difficult to pull yourself out of poverty through hard work when people automatically see the fact you're poor as a sign that you're unwilling to work hard.

You're twisting my words.

It is you who is ignorant by assuming my intent.

Effort isn't the only factor, it's the only mentioned one I mentioned. There is luck, and other factors.

I think you completely missed my point. I continually see people here who complain about one thing or another, and most these same people definitely have an en lement mentality. Don't you think step one to earn a better living should be to focus on improvements to one self rather than expecting to rely on others?

[CuckingFunt]

You're twisting my words.

It is you who is ignorant by assuming my intent.

Effort isn't the only factor, it's the only mentioned one I mentioned. There is luck, and other factors.

I think you completely missed my point. I continually see people here who complain about one thing or another, and most these same people definitely have an en lement mentality. Don't you think step one to earn a better living should be to focus on improvements to one self rather than expecting to rely on others?

I didn't twist your words. There weren't many words there to twist.

Curious what has made you assume an en lement mentality from those who complain about one thing or another, however. Is it the fact they're complaining?

[Cant_Be_Faded]

This strikes me as a defeatist capitalist point of view. Everyone is born unskilled. Those who have the desire/interest to develop skills hike to the TWC/<insert any number of social programs/resources here> to read and practice interviewing. /poliforum

And somebody hasn't seen Star Trek, where they have eliminated famine on Earth, thanks to this dude

Ahh. Stringer's 12th generation descendant.

[greyforest]

You're right, but those who do not strive to better themselves will stay at the bottom.

Agreed.

Internet argument concluded...!!

This strikes me as a defeatist capitalist point of view. Everyone is born unskilled. Those who have the desire/interest to develop skills hike to the TWC/<insert any number of social programs/resources here> to read and practice interviewing. /poliforum

I think you'd be surprised just how many wealthy people are rich only from inheritance.

Anyway, I'm not arguing that people can't become rich on their own accord, I'm just arguing that everybody in the society cannot. You have to account for people without skills or with disabilities which prevent them from bootstrappin'. This isn't a defeatist view, this is just fact. I'm simply pointing out that not everybody in society can be an employer; there needs to be employees and unskilled laborers, and to simply ignore their problems and say they should all become wealthy business owners is like believing a fairytale.

[Wild Cobra]

I didn't twist your words. There weren't many words there to twist.

Curious what has made you assume an en lement mentality from those who complain about one thing or another, however. Is it the fact they're complaining?

Your problem is I mention one thing rather than writing a book, and you assume that's my only gripe.

[David Bowie]

Instead of complaining about the rich, why not study hard and become one of them?

If some of you would put in as much positive effort in personal growth as you do complaining, you'd be millionaires.

You first need money for school in order to go to school or get a different degree. And these days nobody will give you a loan if they see that you might not be able to pay it back.