then we the taxpayers bail him out!

Hubris.

Hey, that stuff doesn't come cheap.

And America is the largest manufacturer of hubris in the world.

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Good graphic. Thanks.

Those who produce nothing, contribute nothing. What the hell does unearned income mean anyway. It is unearned.

I can't sufficiently explain it, since there is much propaganda and self-serving rhetoric that i applied to these things by think tanks, media and even educational systems.

Those are work or earn are constantly being told they are not entitled to the benefits they earned by allowing part of their pay to be held back for pensions, etc. And they are working for somone else who can afford to pay them, so they are always on a lower rung in society.

The job creator myth is just a way of saying that one has money to pay others to do work for them. Thus they create jobs. But they don't do jobs, they do control the money that others must earn from them by their rules.

The tax system reflects this. It is always more lenient and generous with those are not making a living by working or earning money. It rewards and protects those who have the money to pay others. Or not pay them, as traditional social models have been discarded and the workers are no longer needed to continue the flow of income.

In the old days of aristocracy, entitlement to rule and possess was preserved by blood lines, war and religion. Now it's knowledge kept behind the castle walls of patents, deeds, stocks, mortgages and other representations of power.

Someone might be able to answer much better than what I am trying to cudgel an answer for as I have no experience in that world at all. I am sure that many of those managers worked to get to where they are but now they are removed from the common ways of making a living.

Our system works for those with capital. Everything is geared to help and protect that class. The rest of us, who work, are simply resources in the economic scheme that is America. Human resources to be exploited and discarded when our usefulness is exhausted.
When viewed that way our treatment makes perfect sense. After all, what dignity is there in serving others?

Is there a source for this? Who's this particular hedge fund manager?

The highest-paid, according to Forbes, is Ray Dalio (not the guy pictured), who made $3 billion in 2011.

And according to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_money_does_a_teacher_earn, the least a teacher is paid in the US is $47,100, which means 86,000 teachers paid at the minimum rate pull in a bit over $4 billion, a full third over what Dalio made.

I would hesitate to share this unless all of the claims are sourced. On the graphic would be nice, too.

The article does not support that nmber

"...secondary school teachers ranged from $47,100 to $51,180 in May 2008;" The data's a few years old, so perhaps the number at the low end of the scale is actually higher.

More importantly, where did the author of the graphic get their numbers?

You said that the lowest was much high than that

And with that lower pay, they are expected to pay more for their retirement so this hedge fund manager has more money to steal, I mean play with.

"median annual wages of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers ranged from $47,100 to $51,180"

That's median annual wages - not the range of annual wages.

It even went on to say that "..the lowest 10 percent earned $30,970 to $34,280;" and that "...beginning teachers with a bachelor's degree earned an average of $33,227 in the 2005-2006 school year."


So, looking at starting teacher salaries, the 86,000 would come to a little shy of $3 billion. So his math is not necessary that far off. Particularly when you consider that 86,000 is not much more than 1% of the teachers in the country - so it would be easy to find 86,000 that fell into the bottom 10% of salary ranges.

Not saying that he is accurate about the individual in the picture - not sure who that is actually a picture of - but at least accurate in the concept that there is a hedge fund manager out there getting paid more than 86,000 teachers.

My son-in-law was a history teacher in Beeville, TX who also coached. He made 23,000 a year. Now, he's a vice principle at Ingram and still coaches. His salary just went up by less than a couple hundred a year. Is salary fixed by states or by school districts? Both Beeville and Ingram are very poor districts. Or maybe it's just sucky 'cause this is Texas.

of the most affluent and large corporations at the expense of all others. Hank Paulson's 15% tax rate on a reported $5 billion income, or $750,000,000, rather than $1,750,000,000 at 35%, is a billion dollar taxpayer largess for just one taxpayer for just one year. Not to worry though: the domestic right-wing extremist group in Congress will get that one billion dollars back many time over by fu*king over seniors, the frail, and the poor.

because he made it trading on the stock market and it is considered unearned income, while not producing any thing other than $$$ for himself. And if that $5 billion had been a salary he would have been taxed as earned income. Probably why CEOs take a small salary (not that a few million is small) and the rest in stock options.
That would be how Warren Buffet ended up paying a smaller % in taxes than the people who work for him.

In fact, they did, when the Bush tax cuts expired.

But then a whole bunch of Democrats voted for ATRA and Obama signed it, reducing that guy's tax rate down to 20%.

And Obama still calls that travesty a tax increase on the rich, because the rate went from 15% to 20%.

But since the rate actually went from 15% to 39.6% to 20%, it was actually a large tax CUT for the rich - thanks this time to Obama and the Democratic Party. But those lying jackweasels will tell you they gave $2.4 trillion in tax cuts to the top 20% for the sake of the MIDDLE class.

the sentiment is the same. I like to know that the sources are factual, but even if they are a bit off they still represent a huge and inappropriate chasm between those who rape the economy, thumbing their noses at the rest of life on this planet, and those who just want to be productive, seek their dreams, raise a family, and basically have a reason to live with dignity.

are allowed to steal from the poor. Where the hell is Robin Hood when you kneed him. [spelling error only to piss off the grammer police]

and buy another Lotto ticket.

You could become rich, too.

i agree with your message but it is undermined by the notion that a fund manager does nothing of value.

there's tremendous value in helping direct capital to the companies that can use it most effectively.

the problem is that a market that lets a handful of individuals siphon of so much money for providing this service is broken and in need of repair.

but that doesn't mean they aren't doing anything of value.

It's legalized theft on a grand, grand scale.

It's your retirement funds that are paying his obscene income.

At least the FED isn't just creating money to pay him; like they do for the bankers.

Dontchaknow?!

Apparently it's very heavy. A million dollars in ones weighs a ton.

Millions in campaign contributions. How else do you think the main candidates for Prez in the last few elections have been able to raise billions of dollars?

Of course, he sees it as an investment. And he is right.

I sit next to one of them at work. Instead of psychologically normal people who think about how to make money benefiting the world around them, he aspires to be like them for one reason only, because they have lots of money. It's even more ridiculous because there is zero chance he will ever have that opportunity, and that his life is more likely going to be ruined by the likes of these people.

Just the sheer amount of climate change deniers he has personally caused to be funded must be ambrosia to him. As it must be for anyone involved in Wall St, but to that extent they can only dream of one day attaining it.