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Time to break out the world's smallest violin again: With President Obama's proposed $500,000 cap on executive compensation—at firms receiving federal bailout money—the plight of the rarefied rich is examined in the NY Times. Today, the Times gives us details like this: "Private school: $32,000 a year per student. Mortgage: $96,000 a year. Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year. Nanny: $45,000 a year. We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet." Then there's the personal trainer, the gowns for the galas, children's private tutors, four-star vacations... OMFG, Houston is looking pretty good! Holly Peterson, who wrote The Manny and whose dad Peter founded the Blackstone group, puts it dramatically: "Five hundred thousand dollars means taking their kids out of private school and selling their home in a fire sale.” A few days ago, the Times asked some people to remember back when they only made $500,000.
Really, $500K/Year Is Not Enough for Rich People
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Wait, this ban on roll-down gates? http://gothamist.com/2009/12/01/city_council_bans_solid_metal_rol
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"Oh no, I can't survive on $500K a year!"
People like that make me gag.
Maybe they shouldn't have a Hamptons home?
But one issue that's come up during this current recession is that lots of upper middle class people who have nannies and housekeepers have had to scale back, and the nannies and housekeepers are taking home less, when they really need it for their livelihoods.
Nobody really pays their nanny 45 grand, anyway. And someone's going to make money during all this. Just not the same people. Unless we're in a true depression, with bread lines comprised of people like you and me soon. The money's just being reorganized. It's time to be clever and find it. Only the very wily will survive.
puhshawwww. 500k is considered middle class in nyc.
sorry, just posting what some people will say.
time for a gangs of ny riot.
Prepare to meet the true Lord!
Their kids in public schools? The horror! (please don't - my kid has wonderful kids in her wonderful public school, I'd hate for the little snotty downsized brats to spoil it)
when I hear about Obama wanting to cap executive salaries, I think about my artist and art dealer friends that are grumbling about the current art market. If you cap the executives salaries, say good bye to to any substantial funding in the arts. Many areas will lose funding. Like charities.
Obama is being a populist. He has gone from being the ADD candidate to the ADD president.
Um, excuse me, but 500 grand a year is all some loser who really should be in jail but who kept his job and is being literally paid by the government should make.
Meanwhile, let their kids go to public school, and let them move into smaller apartments like the rest of us.
Do you really think anyone is going to be funding the arts now, anyway? Have you noticed that the country is going down the drain? There's no money for the arts if there's no money for schools and hospitals first.
You're in art for life, money or no money. If there's no money, and you figure you'll stop, then you didn't belong in it anyway. I'll be interested to see who sticks it out and figures out how to keep it going, and how.
If CT was like CO, I'd give those fuckers some warning and then shoot away. Private property laws, morons.
If none of these fat cat bastards managed to save a few bucks for a time that most of us little people face - with far fewer bucks - f**k 'em. I don't care if you have to move into a Frigidaire box.
Jen pointed out the residual effect of Upper and Middle Class families incomes shrinking. It has a negative effect for the incomes of people in the lower class or Service Class.
yeah so? They will know how I have felt the past 10 years-fuck them too...
Take $500,000 max or be led down to the basement with your family to meet your fate. Tsar Nicolas got his -- you can get yours, too.
is that the trickle down theory again?
I'm not falling for it. sorry.
just like the so called "american dream".
all BS.
So, let them work elsewhere, if anyone wants them. 500 grand a year is not bad for not getting fired, or thrown in jail.
Frankly, I don't see why we're trying to hold on to these same people who ruined the country! Aren't there some people below them, more clever than they are, waiting to take over their jobs, and happy to earn 500 grand a year to start?
Huh?
Why are we keeping these people? Let them get jobs somewhere else! No? Nobody wants them? I wonder why? So why do we want them? When are we going to snap out o this dream state?
The cap is only for employees of companies that are accepting bailout funds, companies that would be bankrupt with out our taxpayer dollars. I'm sorry, it sucks that they have to give up their life (actually, not really) but maybe they shouldn't have driven these companies into the ground and wrecked the world economy. If you want to make more than $500k then go and start your own company or go to another industry. No rule says you have to say where you are. Deal with it like those of us who are unemployed (unemployed in large part due to the actions/incompetence of these executives) are doing.
Don't worry, these scumballs will figure a way around the cap. They didn't fuck over America by sitting on their asses trying to figure out a way to fuck over America, they worked at it very very hard. And they will succeed again. Mark my word.
I could exist on $500,000 a year if I don't have to pay for anything. Screw taxes, "Only the little people pay taxes." I still get nightmares thinking how ugly she was, mentally and physically.
Maybe they should move out of their luxury digs that are costing them $16,000 a month. It's just a crazy thought, but you can live in Manhattan for much less than that. I pay $650 a month. They can come live with me.
Stockholders should have some say in executive compensation. Right now, it's all up to the board of directors, and most of them have no backbone, which is how some of those ousted CEOs still got ridiculous severance packages. The decisions should be left up to the people who have most to lose from bad execs.
That's why corporate boards enlist "compensation committees" or hire outside consultants to inoculate the process with the veneer of objective, rational oversight (just like Arthur Andersen was "rational and objective" when balancing Enron's books). They build these firewalls to prevent shareholder revolts and few shareholders of the major firms have enough shares or voting power to raise the necessary hell. Needless to say, those outside consultants are themselves nicely compensated when they come up with the right "fair and equitable" package.
"Mortgage: $96,000 a year. Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year."
Huh?? That co-op maint. fee of $8000/month seems impossibly high--especially when it's happens to be the same amount as the monthly mortgage.
The senior execs who think they have a monopoly on leadership and therefore deserve big pay packages are basically full of sh*t. These banks make a big stink about how they hire the best and the brightest, so if the senior execs can't live on $500K per year, then get the f**k out and let the next crop of "leaders" take charge. I have not doubt they would be willing to take the job for that pay. Hey, they can't do any worse that the current sh*theads have done, can they?
Fuck 'em. Let them rot in the streets.
I read the NYT article this morning and started laughing to myself. I barely eek by with my little mid 30's salary. Imagine the possibilities of 500, infinitesimal violin indeed.
I'm as capitalist as anyone in the country, but you can't go to the government with your hat in your hand and then not let them set the rules... sorry.
$500k is pretty good to run a company that you bankrupted.
It was a loan. The government doesn't own Citi, BoA, or whatever bank or financial took TARP. The shareholders do. If the shareholders want to cap the salaries, okay. The government bough preferred stock and has just as much of a say as any other shareholder.
BTW, the gov't lost $74 BILLION in those transactions. Gotta love government!
I would prefer that they learn how to live on unemployment insurance benefits (capped at like $350.00 a week, I think). They have some sense of entitlement that I can't understand.
Not sure everyone realized how taxes work. Let me demonstrate;
More money earned yearly = more taxes contributed
The idea that 500K isn't enough for the rich is a great concept. The truth is they will end up spending most of it which stimulates the economy.
Mr. Obama and Co., Why don't you propose a $500,000 Cap on government election campaigns?