NOBODY is worth more than a million or two a year

In the midst of this outrage about overpaid Wall Street executives, let me voice my own personal prejudice: almost NOBODY is worth more than a million or two a year.

Certainly some people get paid more than that; a few CEOs and top executives in big companies and banks, a few hotshot Wall Street brokers and hedge fund managers, a few sports stars, a few blockbuster actors, a few high-level corporate lawyers, the odd lucky lottery winner. But that doesn’t mean they were WORTH that much, just that they managed to play the system to get paid that much.

In the case of CEO’s, for example, the real success of their company (if there is any success – some get paid millions even when their companies are failing) is probably due to a few very good mid-level sales people, engineers, and/or product innovators who get paid a good deal less than a million a year. The CEO’s get paid as much as they do only because they have cozy deals with their Boards of Directors, because they have contacts among other powerful figures in the ruling aristocracy, and because they know how to play the game, not because they have contributed anything profound to civilization.

In the case of Wall Street brokers and hedge fund managers, it’s true they deal in billion dollar deals, but in fact it’s all paper wealth – electrons moving around. Nothing real is produced. Nothing tangible or substantial is added to human civilization. They don’t invent, improve, or manufacture anything. They would argue that their actions facilitate businesses, and that is true. But that service, useful as it is, isn’t WORTH millions a year in pay.

Most actors and sports stars who get paid astronomical sums I put in the same category as lottery winners. A very few people are lucky and get the winning number. I don’t begrudge them their luck, but that doesn’t mean they deserve the millions; just that they had a lot more luck and maybe a little more talent.

If anyone ought to get paid a million or so a year, it would be people like
- Soldiers, sailors and airmen who risk their lives in combat
- Firemen and police who risk their lives daily
- Great scientists who make profound contributions to human knowledge
- Great teachers who impart a passion for learning to a generation of students
- Innovators who create whole new industries
- Medical researchers who find cures that save millions of lives
- Great writers and artists who enrich the lives of millions

These people contribute something real, substantial and lasting to the human race, and/or risk their very lives for others. I have yet to hear of a CEO or a hedge fund manager or Wall Street broker whose work contributed anything substantial to human civilization. I’m content to have them earn more than common office or factory workers, but not 50-100 times more!