For every $1 earned by the average American worker, the CEO of that firm is compensated $475. This fact pales incomparison to CEO pay in other countries. Let's put this in perspective, shall we? Suppose you make $10/hr and you are an average wage earner at your firm (making roughly $20,800 / year). For the $10 / hr you make, the CEO of YOUR FIRM makes $4750/hr. Imagine that: $4750 per HOUR of work; plus a corporate jet and the ear of every investment banker on Wall Street that would woo you with a 5-star meal and take you to and from the airport in a corporate limo.
http://creativeconflictwisdom.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/ration-of-ceo-pay-to-average-worker-by-country/
Only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. Perspective: Even if you earned $9,999,999.00 last year, the people that made one DOLLAR more are only one tenth of a percent and control 85% of the wealth in the country and only 1 in 5 can attribute their income to actual production.
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/business/economy/24charts.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1322766425-Cx8flOh5USsnnQL8dzLpmQ
Over the period 2004 - 2008, nearly 15% of elected Washington officials saw an average net worth increase of over 450%. (Note: This is an arithmetic mean with a high variance, but is still quite revealing).
http://governmentgonewild.org/thelist
About 47% of Congresspersons are millionaires.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/money/personal-finance/47-congress-are-millionaires-just-1-rest-us
90% + of over 5,000 Americans polled believe the top 20% has about 60% of the wealth when in fact the top 20% control about 85% of the wealth.
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D. (2010, forthcoming). Building a better America - one wealth quintile at a time. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
As of 2012, only the first $110,100 of taxable income is subject to Social Security taxation. Prior to 2012, the cap was around the first $106,000. This means all taxable income generated above $110,100 is exempt from FICA taxation.
(A little more complex notion) If there were only 100 wealth holders in the US and one were to calculate a Herfandahl - Hirschman Index (HHI) for the top 20, the result would be a staggering 7,225 on a scale of 10,000. To put this in perspective, the Federal Trade Commission deems markets where the 50 largest firms have an HHI of 2,500 or higher as "Highly Concentrated." M Waggy, 2011. For more insight see:
More to come.....this is just an appetizer...
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