Income Desparity

So I know there are those of you out there who back up ridiculous salaries. It's not my money to complain about (how it's spent/who's earning it), they're not taking money from me -- those are some of the arguments I've heard.

I fundamentally disagree with these notions as absolutes. First, there's only so much pie to go around. Second, most Americans are milked to the breaking point week in and week out. Many things we buy -- many are necessities -- and the profit margins on necessities are disgusting. I will put a random example out there. It's not the best example, as it's not exactly a necessity, but I like the example because it's something that is a complete rip off. PAPER TOWELS. Heh. These have gotten so expensive. Not only are they expensive, balogna legislation like that which keeps us from getting cheaper paper products from a better renewable resources like hemp is letting them run a racket.

Alright, like I said, that's not the best example, but I chose it because I've noticed the price of paper towels get out of control over the last twenty years or so.

The REAL point of this thread. Income desparity. Have you guys heard that that Angus T. Jones kid makes like 300k PER EPISODE of Three and a Half Men? This is an average show at best... it sits somewhere in the middle popularity-wise.... and this kid not one of the top two actors on the show. The fact that he is making 300k per episode... that means that the amount of money the producers of this show have to throw around... it's sickening. And this is just one minuscule morsel of the Hollywood pie. You know, Hollywood, where many of the copyright cartel who are hurting so bad that they must fundamentally change our Internet reside.

I'm not jealous. I'm disgusted.

reply to post by AkumaStreak


Great example! We don't want to put a wealthy cotton farmer out of business now do we!

Just goes to show how long ago it can be proven that the wealthy have been buying up our elected officials!

Originally posted by AkumaStreak
PAPER TOWELS. Heh. These have gotten so expensive. Not only are they expensive, balogna legislation like that which keeps us from getting cheaper paper products from a better renewable resources like hemp is letting them run a racket.

start using old tea towels. using paper towels is ecologically inefficient, but they are also a luxury. if you buy and use them, you are indulging yourself.

The REAL point of this thread. Income desparity. Have you guys heard that that Angus T. Jones kid makes like 300k PER EPISODE of Three and a Half Men? This is an average show at best... it sits somewhere in the middle popularity-wise.... and this kid not one of the top two actors on the show. The fact that he is making 300k per episode.

yeah, i feel the same way about baseball players who make 20 million a year--for hitting a ball. yet people want to see them do this so they are willing to pay the price for tickets. if we said, 'no, that's not worth it' then these guys salaries would tumble. it's our fault.

What pisses me off is the poisoning the corporations like Monsanto are feeding us and extorting the hell out of us to buy their sh***y poisonous food. Bacon that comes from a pig fed on monsanto (POISON) corn at 5 dollars for a pound ridiculos. It's one thing if the damn food was good for you, but none of that crap is, and we all have to eat!!! My cigarettes cost less than a pound of bacon!!! WTH?!?!?! I realize there are other choices for food but they're all poisoned somehow, through everything from bein fed monsanto produce to being pumped with hormones.

Actors, professional athletes, and politicians are, in my opinion, the most overpaid people in the world. Look at the coach from the LA Lakers Mike Brown who got fired and will still get something like 12 million dollars from his contract. It's insane!

reply to post by jjkenobi


But it's driven by the mass populous watching all this.The more viewers,the more money from advertisers.

The Kardashians!
How much money do they haul in for doing nothing but being seen around town looking good?

There are alot of sheep out there giving up their wool freely.

Monopolies and Oligopolies are the problem. Your elected officials do not work for you and work for a select group that pay for the services of who you elect through lobbying.

But you are the problem. When people come on TV and tell you they are trying to "save the kids" or "protect your children" or ________ _______ ______ (insert emotional plea here).

You eat it up. You live in fear, and you allow regulations and restrictions on trade because of that fear. You let it happen.

-

*By "you" I dont mean you personally.

reply to post by boncho


Exactly.
Look at sports here in the US and across the world.
Good entertainment.
The more they win,the more they entertain,the more people and money they bring in.
All because you can run fast and catch a ball and people are bored and need to fill that time up with watching it.

They,them, have the advantage over those who buy into it .

It's a mad-mad-mad-mad world!

I completely disagree with the amount of money that athletes and "spokesmodels" get paid. Celebrity endorsements....like they make me buy a product so they are worth xx millions...

I used to play a lot of Golf...and I can promise you...Tiger woods is not the reason I used XX golf ball or XX brand clubs. But he got millions by Nike for endorsing their line of clubs. Michael Jordan and "Hanes underwear"...how many millions you think he gets for that? And the corporation gets to write most of THAT cost off as advertising expenses. I think if you want to invest money into marketing your product to secure a larger market share...that is fine. You should get to write a small percentage of that off. But the idea of marketing and increasing market share is to increase profits. If you do it right, you get more than you spent. We the tax payer should not have to "subsidize" these corporations by allowing them to write this crap off and not pay taxes. It's a gigantic shell game.

/end rant

Anywho...

Income disparity has some historic fallout...

The French Revolution
The Bolshevik Revolution
The Cuban Revolution
The Revolution of the People's Republic of China.

None of those turned out so well for the people when all was said and done. Well, I take that back...I guess 1 out of 4 did ok...but I'm sure there are some French that would probably disagree. The problem is that at the time, those people felt their backs were against a wall and they had no choice but to lash out...and they did...

We do this to ourselves. We hero worship and we keep buying products from the corporations we love to hate. Want to change the world? It starts with how YOU spend your money...patronize the small stores...buy local products when possible and if you can find them...always buy American...(that is sometimes a problem nowadays)...the change starts with us...1 dollar at a time.

I pretty much agree with the OP, but, please, for the love of Bob, correct the title. The word is 'disparity" -- "dis-" meaning not or opposite and "parity", meaning a 1-to-1 relationship. Just like disease -- dis-ease.

Thank you.

Originally posted by AkumaStreak
So I know there are those of you out there who back up ridiculous salaries. It's not my money to complain about (how it's spent/who's earning it), they're not taking money from me -- those are some of the arguments I've heard.

I fundamentally disagree with these notions as absolutes. First, there's only so much pie to go around. Second, most Americans are milked to the breaking point week in and week out. Many things we buy -- many are necessities -- and the profit margins on necessities are disgusting. I will put a random example out there. It's not the best example, as it's not exactly a necessity, but I like the example because it's something that is a complete rip off. PAPER TOWELS. Heh. These have gotten so expensive. Not only are they expensive, balogna legislation like that which keeps us from getting cheaper paper products from a better renewable resources like hemp is letting them run a racket.

Alright, like I said, that's not the best example, but I chose it because I've noticed the price of paper towels get out of control over the last twenty years or so.

The REAL point of this thread. Income desparity. Have you guys heard that that Angus T. Jones kid makes like 300k PER EPISODE of Three and a Half Men? This is an average show at best... it sits somewhere in the middle popularity-wise.... and this kid not one of the top two actors on the show. The fact that he is making 300k per episode... that means that the amount of money the producers of this show have to throw around... it's sickening. And this is just one minuscule morsel of the Hollywood pie. You know, Hollywood, where many of the copyright cartel who are hurting so bad that they must fundamentally change our Internet reside.

I'm not jealous. I'm disgusted.

edit on 11/30/2012 by AkumaStreak because: (no reason given)

Paper towels are .99 a roll at 99 Cent Stores.

I agree, actors and athlete's are extremely over paid. They make a ton of money from sponsors, TV deals and of course the fans and public who insist on watching and supporting them.

reply to post by Jeremiah65

It's a mad-mad-mad-mad world!

It is.



That is if anyone remembers that movie.

reply to post by bg_socalif

Paper towels are .99 a roll at 99 Cent Stores.

Wonder how much a regular clothe towel costs to be used over and over again ,just wash and rinse.

Originally posted by kdog1982
reply to post by boncho

 

Exactly.
Look at sports here in the US and across the world.
Good entertainment.
The more they win,the more they entertain,the more people and money they bring in.
All because you can run fast and catch a ball and people are bored and need to fill that time up with watching it.

They,them, have the advantage over those who buy into it .

In many countries there are many leagues in sports. Some that are less regulated have matches played weekly for many sports. Although, I don't know if athletes and their salaries should be criticized so much. Many people play because they love the sports to begin with. Big leagues with multi-million dollar budgets produce good quality action. Is it that bad that people who abuse and pummel their bodies get paid in return for the marketing dollars they bring in?

I'm not at odds with it.

What does bother me is when certain teams spend little to nothing on their roster simply because they know they can fill a stadium and sell merchandising only because of the die hard fanbase.

When the corporate shark, refuses to even try to produce a winning team for a city because they will make profit either way, that's a little disparaging.

reply to post by AkumaStreak

The REAL point of this thread. Income desparity. Have you guys heard that that Angus T. Jones kid makes like 300k PER EPISODE of Three and a Half Men? This is an average show at best... it sits somewhere in the middle popularity-wise.... and this kid not one of the top two actors on the show. The fact that he is making 300k per episode... that means that the amount of money the producers of this show have to throw around... it's sickening. And this is just one minuscule morsel of the Hollywood pie. You know, Hollywood, where many of the copyright cartel who are hurting so bad that they must fundamentally change our Internet reside.

I really don't like Angus T. Jones, not because of how much he makes, but for other reasons, which I made a thread about.

However, actors, producers and writers are very deserving of how much they make. And I see nothing wrong with making money in entertainment. They are not the problem however.

People are so blind to why incomes vary so much. It has nothing to do with Hollywood. It has more to do with your government, and how they are lobbied so useless, costly programs can stick around and continue the culture of moronic employment opportunity.

Watch this video for an idea of what I'm talking about:



What other kinds of things?

A feasibility study to build public infrastructure, projected cost of the project, 200,000. Cost of the study to see if its worthwhile, 149,000.

Those kinds of things. Happen all the time.

reply to post by Jeremiah65


"We do this to ourselves. We hero worship and we keep buying products from the corporations we love to hate. Want to change the world? It starts with how YOU spend your money"

Preaching to the choir -- I am always advocating this. People don't realize how effective this can be -- it should be blatantly obvious. Most corruption/evil today is driven entirely by money. The exploiters have made money the be-all-end-all everything. This means that the equation is simple (only one variable quite often -- money). Vote with your dollars... with the loss of their income stream they will eventually (unfortunately, many such people will have multiple generations follow them before their ill-gotten wealth is gone) lose the influence that came with it.

We need better educational resources (clear information)/watchdog groups so that we can make quick informed decisions regarding our spending. Don't want to buy anything with BPA? Look up what's in what you're buying. Don't want to buy from a company that is tied to lobbying for citizen's united? Done. The information is deliberately beneath the surface... and we buy so many different things today, ongoing (just saying, we need better tools in this dept. that allow us to make quick purchasing decisions when out and about).

I would love to rant on and on about the pharmecuetical idiots too, every year they get rich off the coffers just by telling the MSM this year is a new strain of the flu blah blah blah, they're liars and crooks, it isn't so much about the income disparity as it is about the killing us off and causing panic so we pay to kill ourselves while they laugh all the way to the bank...the least they could do is stop the lying and panic stirring if they made thier money honestly I would not give a rats patooty. Therefor, I really don't at all have anything at all against the entertainers, at least what they're selling ain't killing us and it actually helps us take our minds off that the real horror of life, wal mart should be pistol whipped and castrated and the nailed to a cross for the chinese poisons in the toys they sell to our kids!!!! Entertainers are worth every dime imho, because they make life bearable by making us happy with all this other BS going on!!!!

ETA And don't even get me started on the A##hat politicians that are dirtier than a truck stop hooker, already billionaires who should be working for US not their checkbooks, makes me physically ILL!

I don't mind a someone getting rich.

I mind when they get rich at the expense of another. When they do it by ways that harm someone else, underpaying employees, theft, taxation, cronyism, and deception