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Judge halts new Title IX LGBTQ student protections in 4 states
The judge called the Title IX rule expanding LGBTQ protections for students a "threat to democracy," temporarily blocking it Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and...
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I've always been amazed at the incredible level of jealously and envy of those who begrudge those who are successful. Why can't they be happy for other people's success? If someone is willing to pay someone a good salary for a job, why is it the jealous person's right to keep that from happening?
Regarding unpaid internships - it seems obvious to me that those who oppose them, are not aware of how beneficial they can be. There are literally thousands of people who would take an unpaid internship for a job on K street in DC. These companies are movers and shakers in the political arena. Having an internship from one of these companies on their resume would instantly make them more valuable to employers and would set them up for better paying jobs. But because unpaid internships are not allowed there, fewer interns get that career boost.
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This clearly demonstrates how brainwashed as a nation they are and how they worship these self same corporate gods who brought about the crash in 2008 and in fact reccieved massive pay outs and bonuses despite this.
These people are like Turkeys voting for Christmas.
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Again, it seems evident that people want to second guess what board members with a wealth of knowledge about the industry they are in, choose to pay CEOs. Do those who second guess have the knowledge and experience to determine what a CEO in that industry is worth? I don't think they do.
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As far as compensation in academia goes, it really differs from country to country. In the US it seems to generally mirror the merit distribution: a small minority of genius scientists receive massive grants and awards, while most others receive fairly decent regular salary and an occasional medium-size grant. In Japan it is much more uniform, where the difference between young fresh scientists and old dinosaurs is small. In China, it is further complicated by the fact that the scientific research is run by the Party, so considerations of merit and compensation are conflated by corruption and favoritism.
Overall, outside of considerations of any particular profession, the snowball model seems to generally hold. Whatever trajectory you are on over time makes it easier to stay on that trajectory. If you have adopted a set of habits that drive you towards poverty, then they will keep dragging you deeper and deeper into the abyss, and you will be broke forever. On the other hand, if you have adopted a set of habits that drive you towards prosperity, then the further you go, the more opportunities will open up to you, allowing you to get more prosperity, allowing you to take even better opportunities... Over long periods of time, there are going to be huge discrepancies in the outcomes of the former and latter groups. Rather than being a ski slope, I would expect that limit distribution to look more like two peaks, one far to the left and another far to the right.
Think about the difference between an obese person and a fit runner. The obese person has gotten himself to the point where it is hard for him to get off the couch, so working out for him is extremely challenging and takes a huge amount of willpower - which he does not have given the condition he allowed his body to end up in to begin with. On the other hand, a fit runner keeps running frequently, becoming fitter and fitter, able to run more and faster, which makes him even fitter... For any run distance you will see that a tiny minority of runners run far faster than everyone else. Worldwide the average marathon time is 4.5 hours, while the 0.2% percentile cutoff is 2.5 hours. If you are not a marathon runner, it is hard to explain to you just how incredibly massive this difference is.
Elon Musk's net worth is $200b. Read about how hard Elon Musk works, how quickly he solves problems, how much he knows about virtually every narrow scientific subfield his companies are involved in... There are maybe 10-20 people of such caliber at a time in the entire world, and most of those people live in countries with economical and political systems that make it impossible for them to realize their potential. It is no surprise that he has so many financial opportunities open to him: anyone who knows anything about business would give up an eye to get contracted by this guy. Compare this to you and me - the number of people in the world who would want to be contracted by us is close to 0.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Modern CEOs have to deal with all-time complicated legal systems, international relations, emerging technology considerations... Long gone are times when a CEO could read a couple of newspapers in the morning and talk to a few advisors and know exactly what to do. Nowadays many CEOs are coincidentally programmers, lawyers, public relation officers, diplomats, recruiters, investment seekers and investors all at once. Compared to the work day of a CEO of a modern major corporations, CEOs of the past were on a permanent vacation.
Have you gotten a chance to spend a day with a CEO of a prominent company, seeing how they work? I have. The amount of knowledge these guys have to have and constantly acquire is insane. And the moment they take a breather and go on a 2-day vacation, they will be voted out by very demanding directors. It is a life I would wish on no one, and the amount of money they get is pretty irrelevant next to that.
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Nothing could be further from the truth. Modern CEOs have to deal with all-time complicated legal systems, international relations, emerging technology considerations... Long gone are times when a CEO could read a couple of newspapers in the morning and talk to a few advisors and know exactly what to do
Sure a modern CEO has to be top of his game and know his stuff that's what he's paid for. The average CEO works a 40 hours a week.
A CEO's salary is basically saying it's not a collective effort on behalf of the company that makes it a sucess but an individual effort as in the CEO's , every year company leaders make speeches about how innovative and inclusive they are and how much team effort is appreciated while at the same time giving the smallest possible pay rises to the staff they claim to value highly , yet awarding themselves and the top tier massive bonuses in appreciation of the " hard efforts " on behalf of the company.
. Nowadays many CEOs are coincidentally programmers, lawyers, public relation officers, diplomats, recruiters, investment seekers and investors all at once. Compared to the work day of a CEO of a modern major corporations, CEOs of the past were on a permanent vacation.
My brother is a CEO of a massive international company he still lunches out and plays golf while doing business.
Have you gotten a chance to spend a day with a CEO of a prominent company, seeing how they work? I have. The amount of knowledge these guys have to have and constantly acquire is insane. And the moment they take a breather and go on a 2-day vacation, they will be voted out by very demanding directors. It is a life I would wish on no one, and the amount of money they get is pretty irrelevant next to that.
That simply isn't the case from what I know as the vast amount of CEOs over here will take early Christmas holidays and in a lot of cases longer than the actual regular staff, I include CEO's of some of the biggest American companies based over here for the tax breaks.
I grant a lot of them work hard so what all their staff mostly work hard, does that seriously merit a CEO making up to 350 times more than his team?
It' s actually an enviable life in many ways the CEO's responsible for bringing on the last disastrous financial worldwide crash walked away with massive payouts while leaving a trail of disaster and ruination behind them , this myth that they are " fired by demanding director's" fails to mention that most CEO's are steps ahead of the game and always have an exist strategy , do you not think they know when the game is up?
I can give a list of former CEO's and politicians who brought disaster on their countries and big business who travel worldwide making a fortune lecturing others on finance and business , its a big boys club where one hand washes the other.
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The way CEOs work is not the way most of us work. Most of us work our 8-hour shift and go home, having no duties until the next shift. The higher up the ladder in a company you go, however, the more you have to work and study outside of those hours, the more you have to be available for a sudden phone call or urgent meeting... It is a very stressful environment few people are capable of (or willing to) handling. Even when playing golf, a CEO should be ready to go somewhere at the first notice.
Someone's salary being much higher than someone else's does not imply that that someone carries the whole company on his back while someone else is slacking, but that someone is much more valuable and less replaceable for the company. It is not hard to find a good software engineer for a position in Microsoft, there are thousands candidates available and willing to start working almost immediately; it is VERY hard to find a good CEO for Microsoft. A software engineer making a mistake may cost the company a few thousand bucks; a CEO making a mistake make cause it to go bankrupt. The high pay is a reflection of the high responsibility, in conjunction with low replacibility. A CEO making 350 times as much as a software engineer does not necessarily work 350 times harder, but he does (as per company owners' evaluation) has 350 times the value.
There is this saying about working hard versus working smart. It is common for people to assume that, due to some inherent justice in nature, hard work must be proportionally rewarded - yet the world does not work this way. An elite runner may put 30% as many hours as a rookie and still kick the rookie's arse on the track, as his muscles work much more efficiently both during the training and the race - in fact, the better runner you are, the easier it is for you to run, so, in a sense, elite runners have to work less than rookies. Similarly, I would argue that my work is much easier than that of a construction worker, but I happen to produce much more value per unit time due to the efficiency of my work. A construction worker may lay a few thousand bricks in a month; I can design a model millions construction workers can employ to lay a hundred extra bricks in a month, resulting in an insanely superior net benefit.
Lastly, it is absolutely true that being a good CEO does not equate being a good politician, or being a good person in general. These require different character traits and skill sets. A CEO that is great at business negotiations may be a terrible husband, always overpowering his wife in arguments and never letting her insert her piece. Awesome husbands and awesome politicians are also rare, and, due to the nature of their activities, they are typically rewarded differently than through hefty paychecks.
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The way CEOs work is not the way most of us work
What way do most work?
. Most of us work our 8-hour shift and go home, having no duties until the next shift.
A sizable amount of CEO's are the same according to stats.
The higher up the ladder in a company you go, however, the more you have to work and study outside of those hours, the more you have to be available for a sudden phone call or urgent meeting.
A good CEO knows full well how to sort the unimportant from the important if he / she is not aware in advance of sudden urgent possible meetings he / she has a very poor handle on things.
.. It is a very stressful environment few people are capable of (or willing to) handling
How do you know this? A lot of people handle a lot more for a lot less as in a doctor in A and E on a busy weekend.
. Even when playing golf, a CEO should be ready to go somewhere at the first notice.
How often do you think that happens? Also a CEO has ( mostly) a driver on call and flights etc arranged for him / her , that's a luxury very few of us are granted.
It certainly does if the company resists pay rises to even keep to inflation also what signal does it give to workers if the company does bad and the CEO is still given the usual massive bonus?
. It is not hard to find a good software engineer for a position in Microsoft, there are thousands candidates available and willing to start working almost immediately; it is VERY hard to find a good CEO for Microsoft.
You really believe that?
A software engineer making a mistake may cost the company a few thousand bucks; a CEO making a mistake make cause it to go bankrupt.
Yes and I can provide a list of 100's who bankrupt companies and destroyed countries and still walked with massive payoffs and new jobs.
The high pay is a reflection of the high responsibility, in conjunction with low replacibility. A CEO making 350 times as much as a software engineer does not necessarily work 350 times harder, but he does (as per company owners' evaluation) has 350 times the value.
High responsibility to shareholders right?
Yes I know where big companies place value and how they place , that's one thing will never change.
Yes I've heard that saying can you give me an example please?
The world pretty much is reliant on good productivity, yes I know the world doesn't work that way.
You just mentioned how hard a CEO actually works and how proportionately they are rewarded for that , so hard work does seem to count for some but not others?
. An elite runner may put 30% as many hours as a rookie and still kick the rookie's arse on the track, as his muscles work much more efficiently both during the training and the race - in fact, the better runner you are, the easier it is for you to run, so, in a sense, elite runners have to work less than rookies. Similarly, I would argue that my work is much easier than that of a construction worker, but I happen to produce much more value per unit time due to the efficiency of my work. A construction worker may lay a few thousand bricks in a month; I can design a model millions construction workers can employ to lay a hundred extra bricks in a month, resulting in an insanely superior net benefit.
Yes I get that, I'm addressing the value placed on a CEO's position . Remember one thing this blind trust in a CEO's abilities in the financial sector have cost the world dearly and continue to do so, a very careful has to be kept on them and the companies they work for.
Yes I understand that.
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A lot of work that people do is unaccounted for by pure stats. If you look at the stats, I work 20 hours a week. If you look at what I actually do, then, depending on what you classify as work, it can be anything from 30 to 80 hours a week. There definitely are times when I do not have to work, that is I am 100% guaranteed to not have any assignments doing which at the time is crucial for me maintaining my position and my organization staying strong. That is not the case for CEOs of large corporations: they can never be sure that they will be able to watch this 2-hour movie without being interrupted by something urgent requiring them to get up and go somewhere. It is a huge luxury we have that they do not. A good CEO, indeed, is better at handling these things (often in advance, so they do not suddenly blow up later), but the more complex the corporation is, the less feasible it is to try to take care of everything.
CEOs, as you noticed, have luxuries that we do not as well. Being a CEO of a large corporation, you never have to worry about transportation, or meals, or many other things. You do have to worry about a lot of things that we do not. It is a trade-off, and one that the vast majority of people, had they seen both sides of the coin up close, would not want to make. I certainly would not. Flying first class gets old fast; in my experience, people significantly overestimate the value of nice things, and significantly underestimate the value of peace of mind. Being a CEO of Microsoft, peace of mind is not what you are likely to get.
From the perspective of the company owners, it does not matter where their money goes: to the CEO's wallet, or to the lower employees' wallets. What matters to them is what would generate more profit, and the fact that the investments are split as they are suggests that the market forces do not favor redistribution of investments in favor of the workers. Maybe the vast majority of company owners are just mistaken and would actually profit from restructuring their investment strategies - but it seems to me that, had it been the case, someone would have started making a killing a while back, and that does not seem to be happening.
A simple example of the principle "working hard versus working smart" is this: it is much harder to repeatedly bang yourself in the head with a hammer, than it is to sit in front of camera half-naked and smile. Yet the former will get you no money and a lot of nasty side-effects, while the latter may give you millions of dollars if you are smart about advertising and selling it.
Effort is not rewarded; productiveness is. Productiveness generally involves effort, but effort can be misplaced. Some incredibly productive things can be effortless for some people, and some incredibly unproductive things can be frustratingly difficult. From the point of the rewarder (i.e. buyer) on the market, the value of the product is important, not the value that came into creating it. When I buy a car, I do not care how long the company workers had to work in order to build it and how hard they worked - I am buying the car that I want to drive, not their labor. Their labor was bought by the company owners, and the company owners thought that it was a good trade for them - but it is their concern, not my or other buyers'.
That CEOs have to work hard is a factor in their replacibility, but not in the value of their work itself. Replacibility is important because supply shortages lead to increase of relative value. If a job requires someone to work extremely hard, then that alone can repel a lot of potential applicants and inflate the value of the remaining ones - but it does not increase their absolute value, it just means that the investors can profit less off them because they have more bargaining power.
If someone can find a CEO that will not have to work hard, and yet still will profit them tremendously - all the power to them! There probably are cases like this, although I would not imagine that they are very common. Few people are going to pay someone $100m a year for barely putting any effort. If you are so good that you can do in 1 hour what other CEOs do in 40, then the directors are going to want to put you to a better use - and maybe pay you $200m, but have you work 40-hour weeks.
At the end of the day, the CEOs receive what they do because the directors choose to pay them this much. Someone may see it as unfair, but if they are not paying, then it is not really their business - just like it is not really my business how much you sell your art for. Maybe I personally think that your art is overpriced - but I am not a buyer, so why should you or other buyers care? Similarly, you may think that my work is underpriced. If so, you are free to offer me a better deal. But demanding that my employer offers me a better deal is bizarre: I can speak for myself, don't you agree?
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Now, take this topic for example. It is a classic "always imply but if challenged deny" style of debating. Dreamer simply uses the example of very high CEO wages to illustrate how evil the free market world is, and although he dos not say it, he is implying that this is the reason for inequality which begets crime and social strife.
Okay, his implication fails to address the fact that within socialist countries, the difference between the guys at the top and the rest of society is even more unequal. FIdel Castro had his game boats and his Penn Senator fishing reels while his county starved. The Politburo in the USSR had roadway lanes exclusive for the use of their own cars, and special hard currency stores for themselves and their cronies. Mao tse Tung got ever fatter and screwed a virgin every night while 50 million Chinese starved to death
The point is, Mr Dreamer, that regardless of what inequalities that will rise within democratic, free market economies, that these countries give a much better deal to ordinary people than the command economy counties who have never innovated anything, and who's failing economies mostly benefit only those at the top.
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