It rarely works that way in any profession. Without regard to laziness, it’s not a good business model to pay people more for doing less.
It isn’t true in any business.
I don’t know who gonzomax claims to know, but without exception, every owner ot president of a business I have ever been acquainted with worked very, very long hours.
I have never heard of a person on top who took it easy. I wouldn’t want to run a big company, or even a medium-sized one. It’s far too much work.
See? Lazy American. 
flees for his life
Define your definitions for “work” and “on top”.
As a college graduate, the work I do in an office is not as physcially demanding as working on a factory, farm or construction site. But my work is not fixed to 9 to 5 and requires a lot more relationshipping and politicking.
As a manager, I don’t do as many long hours of tedious grinder work as the staff. But I have greater responsibilty for making sure they are working on the right things and that it gets done on time.
The head of the company might seem like he spends all his time golfing and taking clients out to fancy dinners. But he is also responsible for getting those people to use his services so that his company can stay in business.
No, they do not. You keep saying this over and over but, to state the bleedingly obvious, you’ve only given one example in which this happened. That one example was not typical of the immigrant experience. As others have already pointed out, Google was founded by a partnership, not by a penniless immigrant who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. The idea that anyone can start a business in America is false. As I pointed out in my first post, starting a business requires capital. It also requires certification, in most cases. Most people can’t afford to get these things.
I know guys who make more than 300 K who ran small companies on the way up. They worked a lot of hours then. When they got to be consultants they made a lot more money working about 20 hours a week. When we sit around and bullshit they are slightly embarrassed to admit how little they work for much more money.
I actually know immigrants from poorer countries who came here and got rich. And most of them got degrees from IIT.
Our Randian friend would no doubt tell someone unwilling to buy commercial real estate when every other site has a “For Rent” sign on it that he is being defeatist. No - that is not being stupid. The numbers are very clear, and anecdotal evidence doesn’t refute them.
In any case, your point is self-refuting. Successful business owners will generate jobs - you can’t outsource everything - so if you are right about the need to to create new businesses you are wrong about jobs going away.
Ten posts ago you said they were’s working when they were on top of the business. Now, suddenly, you’re saying they make all the money after leaving the business as consultants. Which is it?
Well, I don’t buy that either. Consulting is a brutally hard business to make it in. The vast majority of consultants fail, and the successful ones have to work their asses off. Twenty hours a week of consulting is usually accompanied by thirty to forty hours of selling and unpaid work. I’ve known successful consultants and they worked like dogs.
My anecdotes are as good as yours. Trump that.
It’s interesting that gonzomax is privilaged to their salary and bill rate information.
I can believe the head of the company making $300,000. A very senior manager/director in a consulting firm in NYC with 15 years experience has a salary posted at about $250,000. But they are expected to consistently generate 5-10 times that in revenue. I question what sort of consulting someone might be able to do for 20 hours a week where they can justify earning over $300,000.
Gonzomax is long time friends with these people. But if you are comfortable saying I don’t know, that is fine .
Execs get to sell on golf courses as do consultants. They sell in restaurants , bars and football games. It is a mix of play and work that is nice to have available. So where does work start and play end?
For some people, there isn’t a difference. Especially at that level.
I know a lot of people making $300k+ who don’t really have a life outside of work. If you don’t manage to strike some sort of balance, you can easily end up one of those middle aged divorced guys with a drinking problem dating some gold digger.
This book from 1993 remains relevant to this topic: The Overworked American, by Juliet Schor.
Stop being so lazy and think outside the box. Surely you could convince some politician to make Solient Green legal.
Wishful thinking.
Ah, you are not even aware of the difference between starting your own business and getting a job working for someone else. No wonder you think I’m contradicting myself.
I’m not whining. I’m telling you, or whoever here is running around pursuing jobs - get over it. The fundamentals are not there anymore to sustain employment levels that we had in the past. Many of today’s jobless are going to be so, permanently, because the work they used to do, won’t be coming back.
Ah yes, again you don’t understand the difference between creating jobs to work for someone else and starting your own business.
Small businesses of tomorrow can do with fewer employees than the ones of today. America simply has too many workers for its economy. They need to adapt and some will certainly fall by the wayside.
Another temper tantrum. Perhaps your enlightened strategy is for the unemployed to keep going around begging for jobs?
The only way it will stop is for technology to go away.
So? Don’t buy commercial real estate, then. Invest in something else. Your example is self-refuting. There are 17 million unemployed Americans out there right now. If you believe starting their own business is wrong then what should they do? Live off the Government? Keep begging for jobs that aren’t there?
Defeatism!
*Defeatism! *
Defeatism!
Defeatism!
Defeatism!
How you do think America will recover with your attitude?
Would the wayside be private propoerty, or the public commons? What should a property owner do with a large influx of unadapted ex-workers falling on his property?
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
Clearly, we need to grow the economy for more workers. Or get rid of the workers. Deport them all to Canada!