Posted by
Rich on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 9:31:52 AM
The
liberal media loves to beat up on the salaries of CEOs that run large
multi-national companies. I am not sure if it is envy or just their
idea that everyone should get the same salary, like in communist North
Korea or Cuba, except for Kim Jung Il and Raoul Castro, of course.
In today's liberal Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial, "Golden safety nets"
they lament that former CEO of Merrill Lynch Stanley O'Neil, "managed
to take home $161 million -- money O'Neal was owed from prior years."
According
to the salaryphobes on the editorial board, "Any way you slice $161
million -- with due respect to O'Neal's long and productive career at
Merrill Lynch -- that's quite a mountain of clams. His farewell check
is 47 times more than what the average Ph.D. holder earns through his
or her entire work life."
Is the editorial board saying don't
get a Ph.D. and go into business for yourself because you can make much
more by not even having a college degree, like Bill Gates?
What
the Herald-Tribune doesn't tell you is the obscene salaries that others
make who have no responsibilities for the lives of thousands of
employees, run companies that are global and provide meaningful
products and services that create jobs and keep America great.
Who
are these people with obscene salaries, who do very little, provide no
useful product or service and for all practical purposes are simply
making money off us poor citizens with no return on our investment? The
liberal media's favorites - sports figures, rappers and the Hollywood
elite.
The highest paid 25 athletes in the National Football league got from $11,100,000 to $30,750,000 a year in 2007 according to USA Today. That is an average salary of $13,876,800.
For the NBA's New York Nicks according to SI.com the total team salary for 2006-2007 was $117,024,192 for 19 players. That is an average salary of $6,158,168.
The top three female actors Reese Witherspoon, Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz, according to the Hollywood Reporter make $15,000,000+ a movie.
Rappers 50 cent and Diddy made $50,000,000 and $36,000,000 respectively according to New York magazine.
These
NFL and NBA players, rappers, and actresses have responsibility only
for themselves and perhaps a few staffers and personal handlers. They
do not run large corporations that provide work to millions of
Americans. They entertain. They do not deal with foreign governments
and run international corporations. They play football, basketball,
rap, and play act (like when we were kids). I have not heard of a one
with a Ph.D. Have you?
We are not complaining about the
outrageous salaries of entertainers. We are all for those with talent
getting paid whatever the market will bear. We also agree with CEOs of
major corporations getting what they deserve as determined by their
Board of Directors and shareholders.
We quote Oprah Winfrey who made $223,000,000 last year, "I
don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I
think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was
responsible for myself, and I had to make good."
That is what America is all about, "the pursuit of happiness".