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Apple CEO Tim Cook Earned $74.3 Million in 2025

seek3r said:
Statistically speaking most people either stay in the same economic band they were born into or drop lower, the American Dream isnt reflected in modern reality

You have this backwards, free markets *require* government regulation and intervention. Adam Smith was very clear, and it’s been borne out since. Loss of regulation and direction from government creates loss of competitiveness in markets and is a catalyst for the conditions for collusion, improper monopolies, and destroys a free market

Welcome to living in a society, no one does anything on their own, you benefit from the labor of everyone, past and present, for the platform you stand on to build your own wealth - and you give back to it in turn for the next person. Not only is that how it needs to work it’s pretty much the only way it can work. It’s not theft to tax and redistribute, it’s a necessary rebalance to compensate society for the things it gave you to make it possible for you to succeed.

Ok, Gordon Gecko

Which is, of course, why agricultural subsidies dont exist… oh, wait

No
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No, to all of that.

And how many people have welfared their way to the top?

Welfare is exactly what keeps people from being as mobile as they could be.

The mobility is still there but has decreased as the welfare state has increased.

There is no better system but sadly, the US is moving away from the system that made it th richest country the world has ever seen.
 
OverTheHill said:
If a guy at McDonalds is making $60k flipping burgers as his base salary, he’s making it more expensive for everyone else.

calmatters.org

California's minimum wage is increasing in 2026 as Los Angeles debates $30 an hour

California's minimum wage is adjusted every year for inflation and an increase will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. Some cities have a higher wage floor.
calmatters.org calmatters.org
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Did you actually read the article you linked?

It states "The current rate of $16.50 per hour suggests that a minimum wage worker needs to work 98 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental at fair market rent in California"

I'm hoping that calculation is wrong, but perhaps the minimum wage earners are not the source of the problem if they aren't even paid enough to pay fair market rent unless they work 2.5 full-time jobs?
 
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seek3r said:
That’s only a valid argument if labor is the only major cost, but beef prices, insurance, rent, etc all absolutely dwarf labor as cost centers for McDonalds. There’s no reason McDonald’s can afford to pay better elsewhere than they do in the states without burgers being astronomically priced but not here, they can afford it here too, they just arent forced to
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When it comes to this issue, labor is the major cost. Wages all over California are driving inflation. If a burger flipper is making $60k, then the desk jockey that used to make $60k is now making $120k and on and on and on. Just a few years ago unions were clamoring for $15 an hour as being enough, now it’s $30. Soon it will be $45. When I had my first job, minimum wage was $4.25. That’s $12 today. Any more than that is inflationary.
 
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bgillander said:
Did you actually read the article you linked?

It states "The current rate of $16.50 per hour suggests that a minimum wage worker needs to work 98 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental at fair market rent in California"

I'm hoping that calculation is wrong, but perhaps the minimum wage earners are not the source of the problem if they aren't even paid enough to pay fair market rent unless they work 2.5 full-time jobs?
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McDonald’s isn’t a career. When I made minimum wage in the 80’s, I couldn’t afford a one bedroom apartment either. That’s not the purpose of minimum wage. You want to play the “living wage” game which is nothing but inflationary as well. People are trying to turn part time jobs into careers. It doesn’t work that way.

Pay is out of step in CA. My first “real job” paid about $36k to start out of college in 1993. That’s about $81k today. I just saw it advertised, same job, same tasks (actually fewer tasks). Starts at $104k. It’s that way all over the state for similar positions (some even higher) and it’s inflationary.
 
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bgillander said:
Did you actually read the article you linked?

It states "The current rate of $16.50 per hour suggests that a minimum wage worker needs to work 98 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental at fair market rent in California"

I'm hoping that calculation is wrong, but perhaps the minimum wage earners are not the source of the problem if they aren't even paid enough to pay fair market rent unless they work 2.5 full-time jobs?
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What is your solution? Mine involves personal responsibility.
 
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AAPLbuyback said:
You have no say in it. Buy some shares and vote against his package. You’ll be outnumbered by people who understand business though.
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Understand business?

Please... you think business lets you off the hook for any kind of social responsibility?

The ultimate cost bearers will be the planet and people born into poor lives with little opportunities to get ahead.

Business in its current form that you're referring to is a relatively new invention when compared to the entire history of organised human social groups.

If what you want for your culture and country is an economy, then go for it.
 
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DBR2025 said:
Understand business?

Please... you think business lets you off the hook for any kind of social responsibility?

The ultimate cost bearers will be the planet and people born into poor lives with little opportunities to get ahead.

Business in its current form that you're referring to is a relatively new invention when compared to the entire history of organised human social groups.

If what you want for your culture and country is an economy, then go for it.
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You make your own future. Ignore opportunity at your own peril.
 
DBR2025 said:
Understand business?

Please... you think business lets you off the hook for any kind of social responsibility?

The ultimate cost bearers will be the planet and people born into poor lives with little opportunities to get ahead.

Business in its current form that you're referring to is a relatively new invention when compared to the entire history of organised human social groups.

If what you want for your culture and country is an economy, then go for it.
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So is wealth. There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The world is much, much better with business and only a nut job thinks otherwise.
 
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AAPLbuyback said:
So is wealth. There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The world is much, much better with business and only a nut job thinks otherwise.
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There is no denying our current system has raised millions of people out of lives of poverty.

I don't know how old you are, but let's assume you're relatively young (<40). I'd be interested to see if your views soften as you age.

Wishing you all the best with your career and business.
 
OverTheHill said:
It’s called a free market. If you’re not willing to work for it, which many aren’t, then that’s your choice. Plenty of people in the US who’d rather take a hand out than a hand up. In LA they are about to have burger flippers making $60k a year. That is actually absurd. That will price the poor out of food options. Everytime you bump the minimum wage or implement “living wages” inflation kicks in and the raise becomes irrelevant and makes things more expensive for everyone. The correct minimum wage is zero. Start there.
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The free market is truly not as free as theory makes it up to be. Do you see how corporations buy politics and shift things to their advantages, and how high-powered people are able to manipulate systems and restructure them to be more top 1% friendly?

Free market ≠ freely chosen ≠ without manipulation
 
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thebart said:
Considering all the insane compensation CEOs get these days, that's pretty modest actually
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Let's not shift the goal post just because other CEOs make more (I actually haven't compared, but I'm making another point here).

Similarly, just because a politician is batsh*t crazy doesn't mean someone who is also batsh*t crazy but less so means that is a good thing.
 
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DBR2025 said:
There is no denying our current system has raised millions of people out of lives of poverty.

I don't know how old you are, but let's assume you're relatively young (<40). I'd be interested to see if your views soften as you age.

Wishing you all the best with your career and business.
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Age doesn’t matter. What I said is true and experience may enlighten some to reality.
 
Naraxus said:
And why is that? Why can't someone earn as much as they can?
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Ask him.
Personally, I'd say the money saved by the company can be better invested elsewhere. Imagine what Tesla could do with a trillion dollars instead of paying that to Elon. Paying huge sums of money to CEOs is a vicious circle for all companies and the economy.
5 million a year is more than enough - and then only if you're performing really well. Want more money? Earn it yourself in real estate or stocks instead of gouging your employer.
 
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AAPLbuyback said:
No, to all of that.

And how many people have welfared their way to the top?

Welfare is exactly what keeps people from being as mobile as they could be.

The mobility is still there but has decreased as the welfare state has increased.

There is no better system but sadly, the US is moving away from the system that made it th richest country the world has ever seen.
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Oh, yes, the mobility is still there, but it all trickles downhill nowadays.

The welfare state is for oligarchs, like the head of Palantir or Elon Musk, who suck at the government teat of the war state.

I don't feel that Tim is an oligarch the way that Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or the head of Palantir are. I don't think he uses his influence to the same degree, or for the same causes.
 
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AAPLbuyback said:
Minimum wage only hurts the group it intends to help and serves as a political platform for votes.

Only government spending drives inflation. This has been known for literally decades.
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That's an amazing way of ignoring every point & question I had. Very clever.
 
DBR2025 said:
But what if what you said isn't true? It's a battle of worldviews where both sides are correct.
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No, it isn’t a worldview that the default state of the human race is poverty and only people can create wealth. The real question is how to create more wealth.
 
TheNewLou said:
Username checks out.

If wages were driving inflation, then profits would be stable or declining.

Profits are increasing, thus inflation is derived from wages and profit-taking.

Has minimum wage risen at the same rate as corporate profits?
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Millennial. Exposed by ageism.
 
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