Texas Proud
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
- Messages
- 17,339
So, we seem to be good at whining about the income inequality situation, but how do we fix it? I'm convinced that simply taxing those who make a bunch isn't necessarily the best idea. Sure, we can seize, through sky high taxes, most of what those making 150X average make, but they're still making it and will simply focus on eluding the tax man. How can we have them not make it in the first place? How can we control the income of pro athletes, entertainers, CEO's, entrepreneurs, highly compensated professionals and the rest of those devils?
I don't have an answer, but I have a question that is a subset of your question. I have been trying to figure what has caused CEO salaries to sky rocket. Their salaries have been increasing at an unproportionate rate for a couple of decades.
Did the salaries start to go up excessively when the tax rates dropped on the upper income tax brackets?
Or, would it have anything to do with the popularity of mutual funds? I'm thinking that there are a larger of number of share holders via 401k plans. Perhaps I'm way off here...
Why should we be trying to limit the amount of income someone earns As far as I know, we are not a socialist country... at least not yet...
Athletes, actors etc. make their money when they are good at what they do... and the rewards to the people who pay them are even greater...
IOW, a move with Tom Cruise in it is almost sure to bring in over $100 million and could bring in $1 billion... he might not be the best actor for that part, but why take a chance on someone else when you are investing so much to produce a film...
If people stopped paying to watch sports on TV, or going to the games, stopped buying products, then the salaries of the athletes would go down... but that is not going to happen... heck, The University of Texas started their own cable TV channel so they can rake in more money... I am sure others will be doing the same (if they have not done so already)....
And I am going to lump in CEOs in this part.... most of these people have a short span where they can make money that seems outrageous... I think a football player career is 5 years on average... even if it were 10, that is a short career... CEOs are the same... not many that have decades in a position... and since there are few who have shown the ability to do the job well, companies are willing to bid the salaries up... having a good CEO can make a huge difference in the value of a company... the goings on at Netflix can show how a stupid decision can take 60% off the market value of a company....