Comment by whack | Hacker News Reader

Comment by whack | Hacker News Reader

I agree that inequality is a problem, but I think the article is on the wrong track. The richest people in society aren't business executives. They are overwhelmingly entrepreneurs and finance-traders. Ie, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Koch brothers and George Soros. Compared to them, CEOs and C-level executives are mere pawns.

To give a sense of scale, Tim Cook, leading the most valuable company in the world, earned $13M in 2017, working what is likely 60-80 hour weeks. In comparison, Bill Gates with his $82B assets can sit on his couch all day, and make $13M in investment returns in a couple days.

If anything, CEOs have more in common with regular workers, than with the truly wealthy. This focus on CEOs as the bogeyman, causes us to overlook some more important causes of inequality, such as the ultra-low tax rates on capital-gains, the numerous deductions available to the 0.1%, and the preservation of wealth across multiple generations via estate inheritances.

"CEOs have more in common with regular workers, than with the truly wealthy"

Someone who makes $13 million a year never has to work another day in their life, and neither does anyone in their family. They can buy pretty much anything they want, live anywhere they want, can send their children to the most elite schools, and money is not just not an issue for them, unless they're trying to buy themselves a country or trying to reshape the entire political landscape of the United States.

Meanwhile, the median family income in the US is about $60k and more than half of Americans have less than $1k in savings. Many of these regular workers struggle to survive, living paycheck to paycheck. They may never afford to retire and could easily be bankrupted by medical bills.

Help me to understand how a CEO making $13 million a year can have much in common with them.

Yes, $13M is a whole lot more than $60k, but it's also a whole lot less than $8B. One thing that CEOs have in common with most workers, but not most multi-billionaires: The majority of their "income" is taxed as income, not capital-gains. I suggest focusing more on the second part of that paragraph:

This focus on CEOs as the bogeyman, causes us to overlook some more important causes of inequality, such as the ultra-low tax rates on capital-gains, the numerous deductions available to the 0.1%, and the preservation of wealth across multiple generations via estate inheritances.

They can buy pretty much anything they want

You might want to look into the cost of purchasing and operating a nice yacht. Not even talking about superyachts...

>Tim Cook, leading the most valuable company in the world, earned $13M in 2017

Not so fast, comrade :-)

You just showed his salary, but forgot the stock ownership which is part of the total compensation package.

In 2017, he cashed in at least 43 million from this sale.

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-08-30/tim-coo...

Which is still a small fraction of the wealth of Bill Gates and Buffet

He has been CEO for only 6 years.

His net worth is about 800M, increasing by about 100M every year, so he will be a billionaire in a couple of years.

He did not invent anything, he did not start a world-changing company (like Gates). He is a competent manager, but nothing more than that.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-net-worth-of-Tim-Cook

How many similar competent managers are out there? Why didn't Apple hire a different one for less money? If they a so rare that demand drives the price up, why is that bad? If they are not rare, why doesn't the competition drive down the price?

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