Posted on 02/18/2014 7:23:54 PM PST by grundle
In 2012, the actor Robert Downey Jr., played the role of Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, in “The Avengers.” For his work in that single film, Mr. Downey was paid an astounding $50 million.
Does that fact make you mad? Does his compensation strike you as a great injustice? Does it make you want to take to the streets in protest?
Certainly, $50 million is a lot of money. The typical American would have to work for about 1,000 years in order to earn that much.
That sum puts Mr. Downey in the top ranks of American earners. Anything more than about $400,000 a year puts you in the much-talked-about 1 percent. If you earn more than about $10 million, you are in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. Mr. Downey makes it easily.
Yet, somehow, when I talk to people about it, most are not appalled by his income. Why?
One reason seems to be that they understand how he earned it. “The Avengers” was a blockbuster with worldwide box-office receipts of more than $1.5 billion.
Of that amount, only about 3 percent went to pay Mr. Downey. In other words, if you bought a matinee movie ticket for, say, $8, about 25 cents went to pay for Mr. Downey’s acting. If you have seen the movie, you might be tempted to say: “He gave a great performance. I’m happy to pay him a quarter for it.”
People are similarly unperturbed when they learn that in 2013, E. L. James, author of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy, earned $95 million, or that in the same year the basketball star LeBron James earned $56 million in salary and endorsements.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And if you’re a millionaire who works part time at the NYT, don’t be pissed at us. We’re libs just like you....
Wonder what Downey’s agent makes? Or his publicist?
The simple fact is that a lot of rich people aren’t nearly as rich as we think they are. Wealthy yes but they live very expensive lives and most are far busier than I ever want to be.
I follow Dave Mustaine on twitter. He’s the lead singer for Megadeth.
About a year back he started looking for a ranch in Texas because he wants to move out of California. Liberals went ballistic over how “greedy” he is for taking his money elsewhere. (He’s still in CA but has been almost steadily on tour since then)
He stirred them up again yesterday by mentioning that he was reading Charles Krauthamer’s most recent book and that it made a lot of sense.
I liked him better as Sherlock Holmes, but the populous wants Ironman.
So pay the man.
I don’t care if they paid him $50 BILLION, the fact is, people have a RIGHT to do what they like for work, at a rate that pays them what they like to be paid, buy whomever desires to pay it.
No, it doesn’t make me jealous or resentful of other’s success. I wish I’d had the skills to earn that kind of money, but I didn’t. And I don’t. I LIKE the old fashioned ideal of the ‘American Dream’ where the sky’s the limit, and where government does’t try to steal what THEY consider to be excessive income, and that they deserve to take that away from you. THAT makes me angry.
I DO believe that as a nation we have legitimate expenses, and that taxes aren’t entirely evil. They are necessary, but only to a point.
I do believe that when you ‘’invest’’ in your future, that YOUR money should be repaid in its entirety and with interest. If some big shot joker manages to loose YOUR money, as far as I’m concerned, he still owes it to you. I don’t care if it’s a ‘market crash’. Someone ‘lost’ money which means someone else gained it. Money doesn’t just disappear into thin air.
Stealing someone’s money isn’t the same as earning it legitimately. The actor agreed to a set amount, and if that’s what he was paid, then he earned every penny of his money. So good for him.
That’s the way it should be.
I agree with you and feel I make enough money and most likely Downey is not any happier than me or mine are.
It’s the old saw. Money can’t buy happiness, or as the Beatles put it, love.
Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying he would like to live like a poor man who owned a great deal of money.
Money is a necessary means of procuring many needs, unless one can avail oneself of payment by barter, but it’s funny how wants can turn into needs when the available budget is there. Many very satisfied individuals give away most of their money.
Bump!
Hows that work when those in governemnt, (The countries BIGGEST employer), are paid better than those in the middle class America, have more secure jobs and receive top shelf tax paid retirement pensions and gold plated benefits....Yet at every level of government they've all but destroyed this country and economically gang banged the poor and middle class America.
“Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying he would like to live like a poor man who owned a great deal of money.”
That describes me to a tee.
Sadly I do not have a great deal of money.
The Left only hates people who make money when those people are NOT liberal.
He said “in a market economy”. Gov’t isn’t.
Why does “deserving” come into the equation? It is a subjective decision.
I much prefer to see discussions of “earning”, where the individual made a product or produced something that others were interested in paying money for it.
You know - value in return for work.
If someone else can steal my earnings because they think I am not “deserving”, I am but a slave.
What made me mad that Robert Downey Jr made $50 million is that he mumbled thru-out the picture....
Are you telling me the biggest employer in the country is not part of our so called market economy?
lol...
And “getting paid what you are worth” does not apply to them?
What a hoot!
I’ll disagree with BOTH of you! I’m not sure people get paid what they are “worth”, but what other people are willing to pay them. Nitpicking on words I suppose. Reminds me of when my mom saw the neighbor’s house up for sale right before the housing market collapsed and she said “Why I bet your house is worth $XXX,000!” “Well Mom - if I sold it now I could probably get that much, but it sure ain’t worth $XXX,000!”
And with government, they don’t need to worry about what they pay for people or things, as it is just play money to them. I was going to say that they can just raise taxes, but even that won’t cover their expenses - so they just print more, or raise the debt ceiling, whatever. The price of something, or someone doesn’t truly figure into it. The competition that applies to the free market doesn’t apply to the government. And it doesn’t apply to the crony businesses either. Or unions for that matter.
In re-reading dragnet’s post about “gov’t in the market” - they most definitly are! But just not operating under the rules small companies and individuals need to follow.
The very existence of this silly piece is testimony to the fact that with Obama striving all out to make communism popular again, people who earn money feel they have to defend themselves.
The entire planet is backwards.
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