You think you deserve to earn more than $200k a year?

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


Because the employer took more risk for more reward. If you get paid well whether you study in college or took risks starting a business or not, why would you go for those things? Where is the incentive to try and better your skills or make investments?

If the employee doesn't like what he is earning he should never have contracted the job.

I deserve to take all you wealthy stingy bastards money away and make you like it

Originally posted by aliengenes
I deserve to take all you wealthy stingy bastards money away and make you like it

I'm not what one would consider wealthy, but I have aspirations of being wealthy. I take offense to the assertion a wealthy person is stingy. Let me dispel your slander with expedient and indiscriminate sharing of my munitions. Keep the change.

Great posts from both side of the argument - but neither side seems to want to budge any further on their point of view. The best way likely lies somewhere in the middle, but unfortunately that is somewhere we humans seem to have trouble finding,

It doesn't matter how much you make, but how much you save. That was told to me by this older janitorial worker at this office building in downtown SF. He owned 2 houses and had a nice car paid for by himself. He said he never spent money on BS, only what is needed. He was living better than us engineers who made more than twice his wages. Justify that.

reply to post by byteshertz


I've only read the 1st page and would like to just say that I work hard as hell between 60-70 hours a week I do my job damn well, work doubles, work overnight sometimes, and 5 nights out of the week, I get home AFTER my children have gone to sleep and went to work early that morning so I don't get to see them. My wife also works a full day (7:30-4:00), so by the time she gets home, I'm gone. The money I make goes directly to bills and diapers, and tuition for the older child in the upcoming school year, and day care and food, and such. Combined, me and my wife work between 100 and 110 hours weekly, and don't touch 75k. I work hard as **** and deserve it.

The owner of my establishment, admittedly is "bored all day" and comes to the job from time to time because he has "nothing to do".

While he's BORED as hell because he owns an establishment he inherited, I'm TIRED as hell from running it. I'm exhausted, my family life is disconnected and HE makes over 200k a year..

So to those who say "I started this company, and employ such and such amount of people" you seem to forget, those people spend far more time running YOUR business than you do, and they are more than likely still TRYING to stay afloat.

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


No disrespect, but if you are "tired" of running your bosses business, then quit. Start your own biz, and reap the rewards. I seriously doubt that if you make $150,000 profit, you will generously give $75,000 of it to your employees for "doing all the work". I'm sure you will have full benefits and match 100% of their 401-k contributions too.

I own 5 stores, I have put everything on the line for my business. I have gone through lean times barely making anything. I'll be dammed if someone is going to lecture me about me making too much and that I should Spread the wealth with my biz. My business solely exists to make me and my family money. Sure I employ a good group of people, but what they make is totally a secondary by product of my business. My business doesn't exist to employee people or pay them equivalent to what I make, it exists to make me money and a decent amount of it. There is nothing wrong with making lots of money as long as you do it legally and ethically.

Originally posted by byteshertz
If you guys are so smart then why dont you understand that this is all a pyramid scheme.
We can not all be on the top, or there would be no one to do the work.
When you make money, directly or indirectly, you have to take that wealth from someone else.

Very true.

When those at the bottom of the pyramid fall, those at the top will have nobody to support them. They will find it a lot harder to cope because they have become dependant on this support.

I'd be friggen ecstatic if I made 50k a year. Wouldn't know what to do with more than that anyhow.

Originally posted by dethduck
I'd be friggen ecstatic if I made 50k a year. Wouldn't know what to do with more than that anyhow.

Yeah well you would find out very, very soon. I don't have a posh life by any means (cost of living in my area is too high), but I've made multiples of 50k at different points in my life. Work hard and play hard. Cheers.

I earned sixty grand a year when I was Eighteen , for doing sweet FA down a mine 35hrs a week .That was in the mid eighties equivalent to about 200,000 a year now.

I worked but it wasn't hard.

Some friends worked harder than me back then and got $9000 to $12,000 a year.

Today I earn about the same as I did when I was Eighteen , but I am happy.

There are kids betwwen eighteen and twenty one in Australia earning $150,000 a year working in the mines, whilst most of their peers are earning about $35,000 a year or are studying.

But for every person in a high paid job there are 1000 frozen out, not because they can't do the job, just there ain't enough room aboard the gravy train.

And to put it into perspective , in some countries people work almost 20 hours a day just to provide food for themselves and their families.
They live in shacks or tents , we would puke up in if we had to share them, due to unhygienic basics, that they can't afford.

To me anyone who can't see that if they have a house and food and are warm...that they are blessed, should know they are spoilt little children.

And to the ones who think they are better than the "Prols" (sic) your time will come , we all learn one way or another.

I have not read all of the thread but I do think I have the idea of what both sides are saying.

I hear people say they deserve 200k. But do those that say that, also say, the men that work in the wrenching summer heat and cold winter days in hard back breaking labor work ALSO DONT deserve 200k?

Do those that work hard not deserve a dependable car?

What about a trip to Disney land or what ever is their like?

Does ANYONE deserve to have to worry about electricity getting turned off because they need to pay another couple hundred to the company?

Does anyone deserve to go through worries like how will I get my cavity fixed, how will I tell my kids why we cant go anywhere for spring break, how can I tell the kids that we cant go check out the new popular movie that EVERYONE is at the theaters seeing.

Do we really want to base our world on a money scale??????????????????????????????????

That is the point.

DO WE REALLY WANT TO KEEP DIVIDING OURSELVES UP BY MONEY SCALES OF WHO CAN DO WHAT AND WHEN.............OR DO WE NOT KNOW DEEP INSIDE THAT EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO ELECTRICITY, EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO GO TO DISNEY LAND, EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO ENJOY SIMPLE GOOD EXPERIENCES, HOW CAN WE SAY THAT SOMEONE HAS MORE OF A RIGHT THEN ANOTHER TO ENJOY SOMETHING OR ENJOY THE FACT THEY DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SOMETHING?

It is this....that still keeps us....from becoming our highest potential as a species. We are so worried about our potentials as individuals when what great things await us has everything to do with the ALL moving mountains.....the ALL doing great things.

Things need to work on a trade system and a work system. Im not saying that some wont make more then another but I am saying....if you work, you should have no worries. If you are dependable, work hard, mean well as you put your part into the whole of the system, then you should not have silly worries like keeping your water on, keeping food in your house, keeping cars going, and yes, you should be able to take your family any where in the world you like....all in return for, being a part of the greater whole.

Call it what ever the hell you like, socialism, capitalism. I dont place labels on what is the nature of our spiritual selves, as a whole, as a species. It comes down to, what is the prime way. What way benefits most. What way helps us unite.

Lets put it into a different perspective.

Lets raise the amount a bit. I dont have alot of issues with the 200k. My issue is with paying people millions. We have people that are homeless, have no clean water to drink, countries that are falling to pieces.

Im not saying that the ones that make the most should take care of the rest of the world....but I could never sleep at night knowing I had so much extra money and so many people were in need. In fact, I think it would be a nightmare for someone like me with my conscious to win the lottery....the feelings of guilt that I had so much more then another would ruin me.

There are just certain things that NO working person should have to worry about. And then there are things, as a so called ADVANCED GENERATION, that others that are not making it, should not have to worry about. Yes, to a degree....those of us that are making it....should have heart enough to at least assure that there is as little suffering for our species as possible.

I just think we need to adjust our means of 'what makes us great'. Is it things like great houses, owning islands, owning 20 cars OR is it things like changing the world to become a greater place?

Considering this. From a childs perspective.

Is there any child in the world that you can look at in their face and say to them....no, you dont deserve to go on a great vacation every year because your parents just dont make enough money?

I think every human being deserves the right to food, clean water, good housing, dependable transportation, and a few treats as well, like family vacations. I think everyone has the right, to go see the world.

What really gets me the most is labor workers get paid very little compared to what they deserve. People who work hard labor jobs do things that alot of us would not be able to handle. I do think the trash men are under paid, I do think the construction workers are under paid, I do think the plumbers are under paid, I do think the people that help make the countries, states, and cities become what they are through hard labor, are very under paid.

I think if you work, you are dependable, you do your job....you deserve 200k a year. Our system today does not appreciate who helps makes the world go round.

If we are short on skilled workers, like teachers for example. THEN GIVE THEM THE EDUCATION THEY NEED TO BECOME SOMETHING AND HELP THE WORLD. Dont base it on money money money, that they need to pay pay pay....base it on they have a will to learn, they have a will to work, they have a will to help.

We need to figure out how to stop making so many things impossible and start making them possible. If someone is going to school to learn a skill...they should be able to have to not worry about paying utilities, they should be able to have a dependable car, they should be able to go to the doctor to stay healthy, they too should be able to take a vacation.

If your learning or you work....then there are things that YOU should be able to have and things you should not have to worry about. Everything based on money is not working. It should be based on will to be a part of the whole. Will to work and learn. Will to be a benefit to society. Will to pull one's own weight in the 'greater whole'.

Originally posted by LeoVirgo
I think if you work, you are dependable, you do your job....you deserve 200k a year. Our system today does not appreciate who helps makes the world go round.

This is one of the most nonsensical statements I've ever found on ATS. I mean, I'm reasonably idealistic myself, but that...

Even the number is quite arbitrary. What if you plug 20k in that statement? Or 500k?

Our compensation is determined by the market. It is extraordinarily difficult to become a good heart surgeon. I can imagine it's significantly more difficult than becoming a plumber or sanitation worker. Market pays for that.

Nobody pays money to somebody for just being a good person. This may be unfortunate, but that's how this world goes around.

I'm curious. I just built a house. I paid cash for the materials and paid for labor on a couple of things. The house is worth about $40,000 more then I paid. If I sell the house I make about $30,000.

How did I take money away from someone else?

It seems to me that the profit in the house is what I would be paid for my time and skills. No one else was exploited.

In a free country you should be able to make as much money as you want.

It's when that money starts interfering with government and other people's lives that it becomes a problem.

reply to post by revmoofoo


hmmm.....
my hubby took an apprenticeship in the 70's worked his way through all those decades to be the top of the line, tool and die maker
even in a good economy, he doesn't make 50,000!!!
lazy?? nope the guy has been on his own, working, since he was 16...
stupid, don't think so, and well, he's far better in math than I am, he has to be to do what he does...
he just wasn't a good fortune teller I think, he thought if he got into a field where he made the machines that made the products, well, he'd always have a job, which for the most part is true....
there's only been a few times when he couldn't get a job in a machine shop, and then he fell back on truck driving....another thankless,although much needed occupation that seldom pays anything close to 50,000.
he just didn't have the foresight to see that societies values would get so screwed up!!!

now, it's the paper pushers that are valued!!! ya, it really takes so much more work to slide a folder across the desk, right, or turn on a computer..
but, what the heck, whatever you say.....
here in the states, they are beginning to find that there is a problem, the jobs are there, but the skilled laborers are no where to be found!! that's what happens when you don't value what you have, even in the labor market,......they fade away!!!
good luck getting a new part for your machines in the future, at least here in the states!!! probably will have to be shipping in from china!!!

reply to post by buddhasystem


My point was to be that no one that works deserves to struggle like people are today. If you work, you should not have to worry about things. It should be about if someone is pulling their own more so then what it is that they do.

We cant all be heart surgeons. The plumber is just as much needed. The builders are just as much needed. There are surgeons that could not hack the hard dirty work that some labor jobs demand.

The scales are way out of wack. From 8 bucks an hour to billions a year for some...its totally freaking stupid.

It should be about who is willing to help make the world go round...more so then what they are doing to make it so.

If you work, you should not be struggling. For those that cant work or countries that dont have clean water or food....the 'intelligent elites' should be trying to do something to fix that too

The reason I through out the 200k a year number is because that is enough to make sure that workers are not struggling. That a worker can fix their car when it brakes. That a worker can afford insurance. That a worker can enjoy a meal out with the family now and then and actually plan a vacation. There is no reason for someone that works to struggle with buying milk and paying their electric bill.

reply to post by LeoVirgo


Do you honestly not understand why everyone can’t make $200k a year??

reply to post by topdog30


I understand that our distribution of money doesnt work and is unfair.