I once made a six figure salary with bonuses and commissions.
I mention this because I believe that people have the right to earn high figured salaries. That is the nature of Capitalism. Many people I know – including myself – work(ed) VERY hard at our jobs. We were not in at 9 am, leaving for lunch at Noon, back at 1 pm and home at 5 pm. We were in the office by 6 am, never left for lunch, made as many phone calls as possible to arrange meetings for the following day that went back to back from 7 am – 9 pm and WHEN we accomplished that – we crawled home at 10pm. Vacations? Usually forced, and if not forced, not taken.
I am not complaining either. I was driven and my colleagues were too. Our business thrived and we thrived along with it – by busting our butt’s everyday. 12-15 hours a day.
Recently, I spoke with a fellow colleague of mine from those years. She still earns a whopping 250+ salary and if you spent one day with her – your head would be spinning from the calls, to the emails, to the data distributed, sold, purchased and so on. She’s quitting her job at the end of May. That is when she contractually will receive her latest bonus and if she leaves before – she cannot collect it.
It’s no longer worth it she said. There are just no incentives anymore to work that hard when bonuses are decreasing, salaries decreasing and the Government coming closer to faulting achievement everyday. I agree with her. There is no incentive. People say the Galt mentality is growing? Darn right it is.
I also have a college friend who once made a comment to me they would love to make as much as I did. She said she goes to work everyday but there was no way her boss would ever pay her what I was receiving. She worked for the State. I informed her that the money she made was equal to what I made because she worked a strict 8 hour day – never a minute longer and took 5 weeks vacation a year, and NEVER went to the office on weekends. Now add that pension, matching + 401k contribution, and all the time off then compare our wages hour for hour and we were about equal. Except, I paid a HELL of a lot more in taxes and didn’t go home if it started to snow outside at 10am.
Now our Government wants to increase taxes (especially on high level bonuses) and people are cheering? To me that is absolutely crazy and that mentality baffles me.
I agree that IF a CEO, COO, CFO, Board of Directors etc… run a company into the ground and it fails – they should be fired. But I draw the line at punishing the masses for the wrongs of a few.
If a company is successful and thriving WHY should the Government have any right to come in and tell a CEO they have to pay a 90% tax on that bonus because their salary is $250,001 per year? Chances are – that CEO worked the kind of days I worked above. They EARNED their salary. If the Government then comes in and takes 90% of their bonus away for achieving goals – being fiscally responsible and making huge profits for their company, I can tell you where all the good talent in this country is going… someplace where they won’t be taxed to that point! It WILL happen. Good bye talent, hello more mediocrity. Is that now a vital part of who we as Americans want to be?
This tax being proposed right now is not the answer to our Country’s problems. The people that will pull the current companies out of the rubble will most likely not be the same people that ran it into the rubble (read Jonathan Clement’s article on 3/22/09 at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123776600113009243.html ) and by passing this tax you may just scare away the people who can get us out of this mess.
There is a great deal of talk today that our new Administration is pushing us toward Socialism.
Webster defines Socialism as: A NOUN
1. A political theory advocating state ownership of industry.
2. An economic system based on state ownership of capital.
Government controlled healthcare? Government intervention in industry? Government control over banks?
Geez, I wonder where people are getting THAT idea from?
Maryann is a contributing writer to the Political Coffeehouse
Popular Political Coffeehouse Articles
The 912 Project on Linkedin
Where Is The Great Change
Ex Post Facto
Political Coffeehouse Fund Raising Effort
The Political Coffeehouse Manifesto
Responsibility
Writers Wanted
I mention this because I believe that people have the right to earn high figured salaries. That is the nature of Capitalism. Many people I know – including myself – work(ed) VERY hard at our jobs. We were not in at 9 am, leaving for lunch at Noon, back at 1 pm and home at 5 pm. We were in the office by 6 am, never left for lunch, made as many phone calls as possible to arrange meetings for the following day that went back to back from 7 am – 9 pm and WHEN we accomplished that – we crawled home at 10pm. Vacations? Usually forced, and if not forced, not taken.
I am not complaining either. I was driven and my colleagues were too. Our business thrived and we thrived along with it – by busting our butt’s everyday. 12-15 hours a day.
Recently, I spoke with a fellow colleague of mine from those years. She still earns a whopping 250+ salary and if you spent one day with her – your head would be spinning from the calls, to the emails, to the data distributed, sold, purchased and so on. She’s quitting her job at the end of May. That is when she contractually will receive her latest bonus and if she leaves before – she cannot collect it.
It’s no longer worth it she said. There are just no incentives anymore to work that hard when bonuses are decreasing, salaries decreasing and the Government coming closer to faulting achievement everyday. I agree with her. There is no incentive. People say the Galt mentality is growing? Darn right it is.
I also have a college friend who once made a comment to me they would love to make as much as I did. She said she goes to work everyday but there was no way her boss would ever pay her what I was receiving. She worked for the State. I informed her that the money she made was equal to what I made because she worked a strict 8 hour day – never a minute longer and took 5 weeks vacation a year, and NEVER went to the office on weekends. Now add that pension, matching + 401k contribution, and all the time off then compare our wages hour for hour and we were about equal. Except, I paid a HELL of a lot more in taxes and didn’t go home if it started to snow outside at 10am.
Now our Government wants to increase taxes (especially on high level bonuses) and people are cheering? To me that is absolutely crazy and that mentality baffles me.
I agree that IF a CEO, COO, CFO, Board of Directors etc… run a company into the ground and it fails – they should be fired. But I draw the line at punishing the masses for the wrongs of a few.
If a company is successful and thriving WHY should the Government have any right to come in and tell a CEO they have to pay a 90% tax on that bonus because their salary is $250,001 per year? Chances are – that CEO worked the kind of days I worked above. They EARNED their salary. If the Government then comes in and takes 90% of their bonus away for achieving goals – being fiscally responsible and making huge profits for their company, I can tell you where all the good talent in this country is going… someplace where they won’t be taxed to that point! It WILL happen. Good bye talent, hello more mediocrity. Is that now a vital part of who we as Americans want to be?
This tax being proposed right now is not the answer to our Country’s problems. The people that will pull the current companies out of the rubble will most likely not be the same people that ran it into the rubble (read Jonathan Clement’s article on 3/22/09 at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123776600113009243.html ) and by passing this tax you may just scare away the people who can get us out of this mess.
There is a great deal of talk today that our new Administration is pushing us toward Socialism.
Webster defines Socialism as: A NOUN
1. A political theory advocating state ownership of industry.
2. An economic system based on state ownership of capital.
Government controlled healthcare? Government intervention in industry? Government control over banks?
Geez, I wonder where people are getting THAT idea from?
Maryann is a contributing writer to the Political Coffeehouse
Popular Political Coffeehouse Articles
The 912 Project on Linkedin
Where Is The Great Change
Ex Post Facto
Political Coffeehouse Fund Raising Effort
The Political Coffeehouse Manifesto
Responsibility
Writers Wanted
1 comments:
We live in a country that has turned logic on its head. We punish initiative, prosperity, success. We reward failure. What a sad and toxic culture we have created.
Wonderful blogs like this one give me hope we might someday reverse our course. Thank you!
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