Ah, the ‘ol “it happened…so it’s justified” defense.
You have to love such an airtight, self-reinforcing system…there’s no way to be wrong! 🤣
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Apple CEO Tim Cook Now the Eighth Highest-Paid Executive in the U.S.
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You have to love such an airtight, self-reinforcing system…there’s no way to be wrong! 🤣
The difference is mostly timing. If I bought a house for $150,000 in Jan 2020. And the appraised price of the home in Jan 2021 is $171,000 (+14%). I did not make 21,000 last year unless I sold the house. My current net worth went home. But I did not make that $$ until the item is sold. At least, IMO.
Further, as you mention earlier re: untaxed assets, the US tax system is based primarily on taxing cash exchanges. Sales tax, Income tax, Business tax based on revenue et al. Except for property tax, there are not any other taxes, that I know of, that are based on the value of an asset. I know Elizabeth Warren was pushing for a change. But that does not exist currently.
But here's the problem with your example. In your example, you bought the house. But Cook was given the stock as a form of compensation. Yes, he was given some of it years ago, but it's value has appreciated (much to the credit of Cook). Nonetheless, I think you make a valid point, but I think it's ignoring the point that some of us are making. I think what you're saying is that Apple didn't actually give him that money this year. I don't disagree with that. What I believe many of us are saying is that this single individual's wealth increased by $265M over the course of the last year. I do see the distinction though.
where did you buy a house in 2020 for $150,000?!?!?!
and more to the point, where would say, an apple retail store employee, or a foxconn worker, get $150,000 from?
i get that you’re trying to demonstrate an accounting concept
but it’s so besides the point as to be irrelevant
you’re quibbling about how people with money turn that money in to more money
your basically arguing over the currents in vonnegut’s money river without even thinking about whether or not that’s how things should be
thing is the article you posted doesn’t say anything about your claim.
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“we’ll within line” isn’t really a number is it
also, that’s completely different than your original claim, which was that foxconn workers earn more than most workers in their region
turns out the article i cited claims that foxconn workers in fact earn much less than comparable workers in their region
either way, i suppose everyone there is “free to earn as much as they want”
I don’t know about you but I certainly did not struggle during the ongoing pandemic. Work was business as usual for the sector that I work in. I do realize many people did but a lot of people refused to go back to work because big daddy government subsidized their unemployment check so their incentive was to sit home and not work. Yes I do know as well some people truly did have struggles but really how is that Tim Cook’s problem. He ran AAPL well during this pandemic and the board of directors awarded him justly for running the worlds highest valued company. No I am not a Tim Cook fanboy by no means. I thought that “thin is in” phase with Ive should have been stopped a good while back.
No one if forcing you to buy the laptops. Where did you come up with 2 years and obsolete nonsense. My last laptop lasted a whole 9 years before it gave up the ghost. Fully functional at 5 years and just a tad long in the tooth between years 6-9 but still ran well.
Of course it’s justified. Everyone with a stake in the company voted for the compensation package directly or indirectly.
Just because something is voted on and wins...doesn't make it right or justified.
There's a whole world outside of the Apple shareholder bubble. The opinions from that can be dismissed and called not "meaningful", but Apple the Corporate Entity exists in that world, within society and a global economy that isn't limited to "everyone with a stake in the company".
One can pretend to divorce it from all of those externalities—and that appears to be the path you've chosen—but that's a fantasy.
Doesn’t make it wrong or unjustified either.
One can think of ceo compensation anyway they choose. But in the fortune companies it is what it is…right, wrong, justified or not.
Tell me, what isn't "what it is"?
(Obviously, that clip exaggerates for comedic effect, I don't mean to completely equate you personally with the hypothetical person in it...I just agree that it's a phrase that's hard to extract any meaning from, so is there more to your usage of it?)
Not CEO compensation, or Tim Cook, Apple, or "fortune companies" specifically...I mean anything in the entire recorded history of humanity? Or what can't be thought of in any way one "chooses"?
The difference is, some thoughts are rooted in reality, and others aren't. Even if one thinks Tim Cook's compensation is great and should be higher—you still can't divorce that opinion from the externalities of the world and larger economic forces, as if shareholders and shareholders alone are moving the pieces on an insulated chessboard.
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The 'market' will only see if it can cough the amount up through whatever means, that's it. Gone are the days when the market saw fair/ unfair pricing and responded accordingly.
What’s fascinating is how this varies by culture. In Japan, for example. CEO pay is much lower (as a function of comparing it to what the average worker at his/her company gets paid). And there, as you say, the middle class is much healthier, much like in the US in decades past.
Personally, I never understood the draw of extreme wealth. What can you buy with $600 million a year that you can’t buy with $200 million a year?
I don't know if there's much of anything, beside
- Generational wealth, so your descendants can also find success through nothing but talent, hard work and determination
- greater access to the levels of power so that the economic system can be increasingly tailored to preserve your position within it, and make it more difficult for subsequent entrants to achieve class mobility
- the fierce admiration, loyalty, and collective defense of millions (if not billions) who don't—and may never—even make the equivalent of six figures, but are highly dedicated and motivated to ensuring that you can turn your 9 figures into 10 or 11.
People should be free to do the maximum they can do in life. The ability to succeed shouldn’t be capped based on the lowest common denominator.
Oh no, not complaining about anything here. You have lost the context of my comments.
I am merely talking about how people don’t quite think before spending money on Apple products now if they are able to bring it down to x number of coffees a month. They don’t see fair value/ price of the offering anymore, allowing Apple to charge whatever they want to.
This is not a complaint, it’s an observation. Complaint/ praise would be if I offer an opinion about said observation.
Agreed. Although even someone making “only” $50 million a year will become a billionaire in 20 years, which IMHO still achieves those things easily, but — as you say — once you reach those levels, I think it’s more of a game of comparisons to your peers than absolutes, so at that point it’s mostly just ego and nothing more.
There needs to be more CEO’s like Dan Price….
