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I get the joke. You want a hot chick government handout (assuming you are not already married to the most beautiful woman in the world).
But seriously, can we stop acting like employees are beggars? Employees are the ones producing the wealth.
We are talking about people who are working full-time jobs and producing the goods which are creating profitability.
They deserve a fair share of the wealth they are producing.
It doesn't take 1,000 times more talent to read graphs of profits and production and assess a product's worth. It just doesn't. I know because I've done it. That inflated salary is due to the individual in question's power to withhold basic needs from the other negotiating party (the wage earner). It is not due to increased productivity.
Please stop pretending this is about poor people asking for handouts.
It is about the people who make the stuff asking to be paid for their work. Starbucks annual NET profits, divided evenly between their workers, would be giving people a median salary of $80,000 on top of their wages.
This is not someone sitting on their butt asking for money for "equality".
This is a question of employees sharing in the wealth they create through their work.
Running a large corporation takes more talent than you will ever conceive of. CEOs deserve the pay they are negotiating. Companies are willing to pay because talented CEOs bring extreme value to their organizations.
I'm a young idealist; I would certainly like to overhaul the whole federal budget, raise taxes on the rich, make capital gains tax rates equal to income tax rates, and spend that money on research, improving people's lives, and education instead of blowing stuff up.
But I realize that with the political climate now, it'll take 50-100 years for America to get with the rest of Western Europe.
So, I have one simple proposal:
Raise the top 3 brackets' tax rates by 3%; tax capital gains as regular income; and cut the defense budget anywhere from 33% to 50%, and devote more of that defense budget on research instead of buying F-35s.
With that money, make college free. Free community and state college. This won't enable lazy people, because those lazy people are going to flunk out. This will enable smart, hardworking people who weren't lucky enough to be born into a family that had money to go to college.
Are you talking about short term or long term capital gains taxes?
What's your current effective tax rate? It's probably pretty similar to the current long-term capital gains tax rate (which is 20%). Of course, any short term capital gains are really considered part of your income and will be taxed at whatever tax bracket the profits put you in. If you dig, you may find that this is more "fair" and schadenfreude-able than you have been led to believe.
Also, I take exception to the implied notion that the United States is part of Western Europe (this is an attempt at humor, not intended to be adversarial).
Last edited by Cleonidas; 07-15-2014 at 03:21 PM..
Well, three of those positions are nearly extinct. Our mailroom, security and recption is all bundled into one (there's very little mail, much fewer calls and nobody drops in) and there is only one administrative assistant in the two building campus I work in. That's pretty much an limited to executives these days. If you're looking for equitable pay for those, I'd suggest re-training.
Running a large corporation takes more talent than you will ever conceive of. CEOs deserve the pay they are negotiating. Companies are willing to pay because talented CEOs bring extreme value to their organizations.
I think fewer people have a problem with paying successful CEOs than they do with the fact that failing CEOs get bonuses, gold parachutes and a seemingly endless number of offers for their next place to practice their incompetence.
This is just another "Your income is more than mine and it's not fair. I want the same as you even if our jobs are not equal. It's just not fair for you to have so much and me to have less."
I'm a young idealist; I would certainly like to overhaul the whole federal budget, raise taxes on the rich, make capital gains tax rates equal to income tax rates, and spend that money on research, improving people's lives, and education instead of blowing stuff up.
But I realize that with the political climate now, it'll take 50-100 years for America to get with the rest of Western Europe.
So, I have one simple proposal:
Raise the top 3 brackets' tax rates by 3%; tax capital gains as regular income; and cut the defense budget anywhere from 33% to 50%, and devote more of that defense budget on research instead of buying F-35s.
With that money, make college free. Free community and state college. This won't enable lazy people, because those lazy people are going to flunk out. This will enable smart, hardworking people who weren't lucky enough to be born into a family that had money to go to college.
I will agree that research would be the best government expense IF we were going to have governemnt address the economy.
I don't see what raising the 28% brack to 28.81 does, but okay.
More kids in college? Only if standards increase and schools are held accoutnable for the grads they churn out. Right now the focus of too many schools is grabbing as much financial aid money as they can. I'd like to be sure ever grad could read a government document, write a cohesive sentence and make a logical argument on a subject. I encounter too many who can't.
Well, three of those positions are nearly extinct. Our mailroom, security and recption is all bundled into one (there's very little mail, much fewer calls and nobody drops in) and there is only one administrative assistant in the two building campus I work in. That's pretty much an limited to executives these days. If you're looking for equitable pay for those, I'd suggest re-training.
They are far from extinct in the average New York firm. The mailroom people work in the mailroom and sort mail. The receptionists are the people who take calls when you call the main line. And the secretaries are the people who provide direct administrative support to associates and partners. They are three distinct jobs.
They are far from extinct in the average New York firm. The mailroom people work in the mailroom and sort mail. The receptionists are the people who take calls when you call the main line. And the secretaries are the people who provide direct administrative support to associates and partners. They are three distinct jobs.
So again, what should each of them make?
This obviously varies to a large extent and I think I'm speaking from the same side of the aisle as you, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that an assistant position will not pay a wage that will support a family. Six figure assistant DO exist... But it's because they have made themselves irreplaceable and because they are REALLY good assistants. If you have a good horse, you had better feed it. If you have a company of baristas who are, let's face it, INHERENTLY replaceable whether or not it could be reasonably argued that any one of them is more productive than, for example, Howard Schultz and they all want an equal share of the company's net profits... Well then, that kinda IS like poor people asking for handouts.
This obviously varies to a large extent and I think I'm speaking from the same side of the aisle as you, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that an assistant position will not pay a wage that will support a family. Six figure assistant DO exist... But it's because they have made themselves irreplaceable and because they are REALLY good assistants. If you have a good horse, you had better feed it. If you have a company of baristas who are, let's face it, INHERENTLY replaceable whether or not it could be reasonably argued that any one of them is more productive than, for example, Howard Schultz and they all want an equal share of the company's net profits... Well then, that kinda IS like poor people asking for handouts.
I'm just asking how much people think each position should pay. You can even make it relative. Should the partner make 10 times as much as the mail clerk? 20 times? 30 times? Should the secretary make half of what the associate makes?
Raise the top 3 brackets' tax rates by 3%; tax capital gains as regular income; and cut the defense budget anywhere from 33% to 50%, and devote more of that defense budget on research instead of buying F-35s.
With that money, make college free. Free community and state college. This won't enable lazy people, because those lazy people are going to flunk out. This will enable smart, hardworking people who weren't lucky enough to be born into a family that had money to go to college.
I don't think college is the answer. Because going to college, provided that someone has been equipped to succeed in college (and somehow survived the school to prison pipeline and had a school that had real college prep level stuff, and is able to focus on college without family drama) isn't the panacea. The big thing that still does a lot of the driving of our workforce is connections, and social connections. Things like internships can help bridge the gap, but if you are expected to be a wage earner in your family, you can't take a low or no-pay summer internship to build up the skills to get your foot in the door.
Even if you graduate, you'll still be at a disadvantage compared to your well connected middle class peers.
And the one thing we don't ever really talk about. It's major choice. And I don't mean STEM. for kids in low opportunity environments, they are rarely exposed to the wide range of careers that are out there. They have no idea all of the options of careers that are well-paying and that your college degree can lead to. How do we teach al of our kids, that there are loads of paths to success. Not just being a celebrity, tech execute or doctor or coder?
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