http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-cars-help-balance-out-u-s-income-inequality Also read this in this article here: http://www.businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-on-ceo-pay-and-inequality-2015-9 Yup..... we must take care of wall street so that the guys at the top have a good life. I really am amazed how the world today, in my sick and twisted version of how I think it all works, is designed to make life better for the few at the expense of many. Most of the guys at the top wouldn't have what they have if people didn't scrimp and save to buy $800 iphones or memberships to Netflix. We are all just cattle going about life and through our day to day actions help make life better for the privileged few. The hardest working people who deserve the most unfortunately usually get the least. These days to get ahead, you unfortunately have to figure out a way to take it from someone else, but convince them that their life is actually better off. (I know that nobody forces anyone else to have an iphone, but using science to figure out how people think and getting the marketing machine on your side isn't exactly a wholesome practise)
He's kinda right man. America = Japan. No growth anymore. This is it. Kids don't even wanna mate and date anymore. What's the point? Their futures are fucked and they know it.
LOL... I'm not exactly sure if this is right. It's like saying a person needs to always add a pound of weight every year onto their bodies. Yes when you're young you need to gain wait, but one you hit adulthood, maintenance is key... not continually getting heavier! The whole movement about the earth being sustainable I think applies as well. Do we really need more people every year to pay into the social security pot to cover those that are withdrawing more than they put in themselves? At what point does this go bust? Its a ponzi scheme! I don't understand why there has to be growth if there wasn't inflation. Growing as much food as is consumed seems about right to me. When the world population stops growing, and it will one day, will the whole system collapse? If you ask me, the answers he provides are simply a way to direct the attention elsewhere.
Oh ya, and your comparison of America to Japan is fine, but why is it like this? When too much money is borrowed, or course you can't ever pay it back if every year you're not adding multiples of children into the demographics. But is it so hard to picture a person spending what they make, enjoying their life, and dying with nothing? Countries of course don't die, but each generation uses more than they produce and then puts it on the next generation to fix.
No clue man. Enjoy the cachet of being American while it lasts. Go travel, meet women, eat good food, stretch that dollar. This next generation isn't going to be able to pass on shit. We're building a brand new "diverse" country anyway. The old American values are long gone. Innovation? Sacrifice? Grit? Family? All that shit is gone. Replaced by the "click economy" and youtube. Fuck... Every American's mind was tainted by that 20 year bull run. Life isn't meant to be that damn good forever! It just isn't. Good luck figuring this shit out kp.
bingo, this whole idea of an economy based on nothing more than growth is unsustainable. How will robbing Bill Gates and Warren of all their money make you any richer? For that matter we could kill 1% of the top earners every year on DEC 31 and I doubt you would be any better off. To this day in some cultures the only hope is to have many many children. Making it on 2.3 kids is getting easy for the parents but hard for the economists.
The point is that exec pay is completely arbitrary and not tied to performance. Whitacre was paid something like $60MM one year at T when the shares had fallen YoY. Stephenson made $30MM a year when the stock dropped 10% YoY. The compensation committee members are hand-picked by the exec board members and are blowing them the entire time they are to be scrutininzing their performance.
if you are so outraged by ceo pay, why do you still own their stock? You can't do the work to find some other investment where the payout is more to your liking? Or are you one of those who don't even own the stock and have no risk involved and just like to bitch when somebody makes more money than you?
I completely agree with this. The CEO pay is decided by the board, and the board has to answer to the shareholders, and I imagine shareholders to some extent have the power to replace the board, but in reality, I realize that its not nearly as democratic as this. But simply put, the stock price is high because people keep buying it, and that's fine. What's not fine though is that using money to make money is allowed by elected officials to be the easiest way to riches. I think that all these incentives for investment income, making it cheaper in terms of taxes to earn money by not actually working, is detrimental to a just society. If everyone actually got good at trading (which clearly isn't possible since someone has to lose), but imagine a world where nobody actually works, but they just move money around. Easy money should actually be taxed higher, not lower. There should be an incentive to work and add something meaningful to society, not the other way around. The current system is of course established by the rich to perpetuate their dominance over everyone else. Can you imagine if just for one day nobody bought an iphone or went to the bank to make a transaction and hence put money into the banks pockets? I know that all these big business hotshots lobby the government saying that they are so important because if they don't provide jobs to the people, then the people will suffer, but what this essentially means is that for everyone to have food and water, they find a way to ensure that they have the biggest slice. Its unfortunately not a democracy because money buys votes, and money isn't distributed equally. Only a few people actually get to vote, and these days, it doesn't even matter who you vote for as each potential candidate has someone bank rolling their campaign, which means each potential candidate is already in someone's pocket. Under the current system, there is simply no way for the super rich to lose, except, as history has shown, when a major revolt happens and the people decide to reset the system. I doubt we are close to that, but unfortunately there is no other way. Essentially nobody minds that the guy at the top gets 1000% as long as we get our 1% by way of stupid distractions we can buy. No offense to the sad period in history where slavery was rampant, but today, most people are simply modern day slaves in an economic sense. The more people you have struggling to make ends meet day after day means that more people need to buy food and shelter (along with useless gadgets), and the guys at the top all get a cut from each of these transactions. Give them an iphone so they think they have something in their life to work towards and cheer them up, all the while acting like a bee in the beehive, alive only to serve the queen bee at the top. (Sorry about the rant... I guess I'm kind of pissed they didn't raise interest rates. I wanted to see what would happen. Lets stop stalling and just start the great unraveling already!)