Apparently the government thinks it’s a good idea. The rich are already paying up to 35% in Federal income taxes. However, the newly proposed additional (surtax) income taxes would take away another 1 to 2% from those making between $350K and $500K. For people earning up to one million, it would be another 3%, and for those making more than a million, they’ll pay another 5.4%.
So, if put into effect, that means our beloved millionaires and billionaires may be paying as much as 40.4% of their hard-earned money annually to the IRS. It’s difficult to feel sorry for them, and also doesn’t seem an additional burden on people who already have more money than they can spend in several lifetimes. However, government beancounters claim it will give another $544 billion to the Federal government over the next ten years.
Of course, the usual never-ending government spending, including wars, socialized medicine and big-business bailouts, costs taxpayers trillions. Taking a few hundred million more from the super wealthy would likely be even less than the proverbial drop in the bucket.
In addition to the tax situation, many Americans feel that during such tough economic times, those at the highest income brackets should suffer a bit along with the rest of us. For instance, incomes for some celebrities and CEOs today range from the ridiculously sky-high to the totally obscene. For instance (M for millions):
Oprah Winfrey, TV host: $260M …
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, hip hop: $150M …
Tiger Woods, golf pro: $128M …
Andrew J. Hall, Citigroup exec: $100M …
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO: $99M …
Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, hip hop: $82 million …
Will Smith, actor and Beyonce Knowles, singer: $80M …
Johnny Depp, actor: $72M …
Toby Keith, Western singer: $48M …
Simon Cowell, TV host and Leonardo Di Caprio, actor: $45M …
Justin Timberlake, singer: $44M …
LeBron James, pro basketball: $40.5M …
Madonna, rock singer: $40M …
Alex Rodriguez, pro baseball and Sean “Diddy” Combs, hip hop: $35M …
Average pay of oil company CEOs: $33M …
Average pay of auto company CEOs: $32M …
Derek Jeter, pro baseball and Judge Judy, TV star: $30M …
Ben Roethlisberger, pro football and Rush Limbaugh, radio host: $28M …
Jeff Gordon, auto racer: $26M …
Reese Witherspoon and Angelina Jolie, actresses: $20M …
Average pay for bank and financial company CEOs: $19M …
Katie Couric, TV anchor: $15M
Do super-rich jocks, movie actors, rock stars, TV anchors and MCs of no-talent shows really deserve such outrageous compensation? Of course not, but justification for overpaying such top stars could be argued. After all, their efforts and popularity bring in high profits for networks, producers and pro team owners. However, how can similarly inflated salaries, bonuses and golden parachutes for CEOs of failed/bailed-out banks, financial companies, automakers and business chains be justified?
This is a typical example of that type of in-your-face compensation for a Citgroup investment executive. While his financially-troubled company received $45 billion in bailout money, Andrew J. Hall’s 2009 pay package, with all the add-ons and stock options, may be as high as $100 million.
In another example, over the past year financially-troubled Starbucks has closed hundreds of its stores and put thousands of employees out of work. Yet, the Starbucks board voted to give CEO Howard Schultz a $99 million paycheck. They’ll have to sell lots of overpriced cups of artificially flavored coffee in the surviving stores to get enough money to compensate him.
Does any of this make sense at all? Many companies are taking huge Federal bailouts, drastically cutting staffs, going through bankruptcy reorganization or actually being taken over by the government. Therefore, it means the multi-million-dollar salaries and retirement packages for many of their grossly-compensated executives are now being paid by American taxpayers.
Therefore, maybe in a twisted sense of justice, by making the fat cats pay higher income taxes, some of the bailout money will filter back to ordinary American taxpayers. Yeah, sure.