Why? What is the correct amount?
I mean, it's relative. You can see that of any job if comparing to someone working the mines in Africa, right? I'm not saying it's crazy amount of money. But, really, what is the correct amount?
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Apple CEO Tim Cook Earned $98.7M in Stock and Salary in 2021
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I mean, it's relative. You can see that of any job if comparing to someone working the mines in Africa, right? I'm not saying it's crazy amount of money. But, really, what is the correct amount?
No single person needs that much money…our society is broken
Of course, that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to that. But why do you get to make a definitive statement saying that ‘nobody needs that much money’. Who are you to decide that? Have you ever been in a CEO position of one of thee largest, most successful companies in the world? If so, do you think that you should be delegated to determine how much somebody should make based off their experience and level of commitment to a company as long Tim has?
These are all questions that should be considered when following up to your statement.
The counterpoint is that money is a very powerful motivator that has been responsible for many of the advancements in society today, both for better and for worse.
You are right in that society is broken, but I doubt it will be fixed by capping the wages of our top earners.
The fact that they make so much more than the average worker IS pretty sickening to anyone with common sense
No CEO should be earning that much more than their average worker, and I'm a capitalist. It IS sickening
Anyone with common sense won’t ascribe to the above period.
It’s “sickening” to you. To me it’s a powerful reminder of success. Ymmv.
Tim Cook is not a founder like Bill Gates and Elon Musk; he's a custodian, following in Steve Jobs' foosteps. Hence he doesn't make the big bucks, relatively speaking. But he seems to be doing a good job, navigating a $2.9 trillion ship, managing the world's most complex supply chain, and worrying about Google and Android constantly biting at his heels.
I used to be a Windows-Unix-Linux-Android snob, looking down on Apple's closed ecosystem and "protect users from themselves" philosophy of design. However, the excellence of their products finally won me over, and I now rock an iMac 27" as my main workstation, an Air laptop, and a couple of iPads. The most recent, an iPad Mini 5, is simply excellent; I never thought I'd love that size, but the display is incredible and the user experience is rich. The final piece of the puzzle will be an iPhone (13 or 14) some day; right now still enjoying a Samsung S20 Ultra.
Apple sold me on their superior design and implementation, and that's down to Tim Cook's leadership. I read some of this thread and it seems to me people are missing the forest for the trees. He gets paid a lot because they value him. How much an employee earns relative to what you earn is irrelevant. You might as well compare your own pay to that of any random person walking down the street. How does that make sense? Move to Cuba or Venezuela if you insist on income equality.
I used to be a Windows-Unix-Linux-Android snob, looking down on Apple's closed ecosystem and "protect users from themselves" philosophy of design. However, the excellence of their products finally won me over, and I now rock an iMac 27" as my main workstation, an Air laptop, and a couple of iPads. The most recent, an iPad Mini 5, is simply excellent; I never thought I'd love that size, but the display is incredible and the user experience is rich. The final piece of the puzzle will be an iPhone (13 or 14) some day; right now still enjoying a Samsung S20 Ultra.
Apple sold me on their superior design and implementation, and that's down to Tim Cook's leadership. I read some of this thread and it seems to me people are missing the forest for the trees. He gets paid a lot because they value him. How much an employee earns relative to what you earn is irrelevant. You might as well compare your own pay to that of any random person walking down the street. How does that make sense? Move to Cuba or Venezuela if you insist on income equality.
Too bad that no one will pay you what you're worth.
I see your point but I don’t think his is really his. The real question — and actually in the long run, the only question — is whether or not the accelerating accumulation of wealth among a decreasing number of individuals is sustainable. Unfettered access to wealth leads to individuals with increasing power to secure their access to greater wealth. Who’d turn that down?
So while some arbitrary earnings cap might not wash, it’s worth asking ourselves what happens when those discrepancies reach a society’s tipping point. Nick Hanauer did a TED talk on it which is worth watching. Folks can bicker about him personally or quibble with a stat or two, but his main point isn’t wrong here. All you need to see that is to go back to just about any revolution in human history. People can protest in favor of pure capitalism, and that’s fine, but on its current trajectory society will come crashing down while they’re defending an uncontrolled free market. No generation ever thinks theirs will be the last one in a culture’s current form.
For the record, I’m not purely on one side or another, and it’s my own business whether I do or don’t have wealth. But I do see what’s happening, and it’s happening whether we complain about it or not.
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Perhaps if Mr. Reich would invest his own money in a startup business and guide it as successful as Elon has, he too would be worth more than the BS he slings.
Seems like there are two sides: one side are those who want to limit what a person can accumulate and the other side being the opposite. Seems the former has been tried and failed in the history books.
What the history books tell us is that there are zero examples of successful societies where there is huge and growing wealth discrepancy, as we have here. Hanauer’s point, which you should really watch, is that unmanaged capitalism inherently leads to this, and that the solution isn’t limiting earnings but prioritizing getting that wealth into the hands of an eagerly spending middle class.
There will always be gazillionaires in a capitalist society, and there are two ways to get them. One, ours, is to allow them to build a financial system in their favor, and it’s not going to last. That’s history, over and over.
I appreciate the link, but there are more pressing issues for me personally than if “Bill Gates” can take over and build a financial system to suit him. I’d rather see the US fail than to have systems in place prevent another “Bill Gates.”
lololol, yeah dude, because your one friend says it's easy to coast, that means everyone else is lying. Brilliant!
As good a job as Cook has done for Apple, no single individual “earns” 100 million dollars in a year. Maybe, in a lifetime, it might be possible. But the mere fact that this is defended shows how well conditioned we all are to drink the Kool Aid and sincerely agree that this could be part of a just society.
Excellent response.
The issue is social sustainability.
So many defenders of laissez-faire capitalism seem to miss the whole point of society while throwing it under the bus to serve “free market” and “success” propaganda, while the concept of greed is somehow “logicked” away by “rational” commentary as something that’s not only irrelevant to conversation but somehow a faux pas to even try to discuss it.
Societal sustainability is the key (as well as environmental sustainability, and so much more). This ***** that’s ruling us now isn’t a sustainable economic system and we are on the path to self-destruction, all to maintain what comes down to religious conviction in a myth called “free market capitalism”.
And there’s your fallacy: worth does not necessarily equal money. What a limited and antisocial ideology.
You’d rather have the US fail than have regulation to prevent unsustainable systems... wow. Just... wow.