how are people happy that bill gates has been paid US$500,000 an hour average, $10 million an hour peak?

Question

out of 4 billion workers, there has to be 1000 people who are very equal to bill gates in hardness of work, brains, talent, education, instinct, dedication, skill, etc, etc - who are very unequal in pay

if you set every adult in the world, with equal tools and materials, to make a variety of products, there are a billion people who will produce as much as bill gates per hour

how do people manage to feel happy [or not unhappy, and not cheated] about bill gates being paid 50,000 times average pay?

how do people manage not to reflect that very high pay has to be funded by lower than average pay?

bill gates does an hour's work, and buys US$500,000 [1998 dollars] worth of goods, which have taken others 50,000 hours' work to make - gates contributes an hour of himself to society and society contributes 50,000 hours to bill gates

[world average per hour production US$10 - 1998 dollars - US$15 2006 dollars]

why is everyone giving money [work] to this complete stranger?

Answer 1

I think you're a bit confused. Bill Gates isn't paid anything. He does not have a salary from Microsoft. He works there for free. The money he makes is because he owns half of the company; and the profits he makes are equivalent to the sums you state.

But the value of his holding is not the same as his salary, any more than the income you earn from a stock portfolio is in any way attached to your salary.

Answer 2

I don't understand. He gets paid that much because he founded a company that people thought contributed a worth-while product to society. That's how capitalism works. If there were no pay-off for taking the risk to found a company, no one would do it. Its too much to risk: your money, a secure job, and your friends and family due to the huge time commitment in founding a start-up.

Also, I don't think that most people realize is that Bill Gates now spends most of his time and money working for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its a charitable foundation which has a budget the size of many small countries (funded largely by Gates himself) and the potential to create a lot of good in the world. I don't see why people target Bill Gates as opposed to Carlos Slim, the chairman and CEO of Telmex and 3rd richest man in the world. He runs a ruthless telecommunications monopoly in Mexico and hasn't given a single peso of his fortune to charity.

What you are essentially arguing is an attempt to justify socialism. Although it would be great if it could work, it doesn't. Nobody would want to be a brain surgeon if the pay was the same as a janitor.


--My mistake: Slim announced less than a month ago that he would match every dollar donated to Mexican charitable orginizations. Guess its a step in the right direction.

Answer 3

Although I tend to agree with rmtzlr on a few points, I believe that if people were all paid a reasonable salary (as opposed to one that sometimes exceeds the rest of the population by over 100 times), they would still choose to be whatever they would choose to be. In fact, those people choosing to be surgeons for example, would be doing so not based on an indecent salary, but for the sheer thrill and interest of doing so.

All that aside, getting to the point at hand... Most people are "OK" with people such as Bill Gates for one main reason... we really have no choice but to be OK with it. After all, how many of us have the power to directly effect the salary disbursements of major international conglomerates? If you could say yes, you're most likely at the head of such an organization, and not likely to give yourself a substantial pay cut, just because the enormous yacht parked in front of your 40 room mansion is a bit tacky to the peasants living around you.

Instead of feeling bad for yourself and others when enormous amounts of barely earned cash are at stake, simply find your own niche, and work at making your own fortune that you can spend however you see fit. Just think of how much better you'll feel after trading a few years of your life for large sums of cash, just so you can be one of the few elite members of society who actually gives back to the community that supported you. Just remember to give what feels right, and not only pay your workers top dollar for their efforts, but grant them full benefits as well...

Answer 4

He is co-founder of Microsoft Corp. in which he is a major stockholder. The happiest people are the shareholders and employees who own Microsoft stock when it was just a start-up.

Answer 5

he is a clever guy and he earn money like turning on the water tap

Answer 6

wow..i cant even imagine that amount of cash!!!