Because whoever is rich is good. You can’t be rich unless you’ve done something wonderful for society. Especially corporate senior level managers are good. Whoever heard of one of them falling upstairs? They’re all high-level people who make the rest of us peons look like, um, peons. We should be ever so grateful for everything they do for us and never ever complain about their wealth or our relative poverty. That just means we want everyone to be equal, and that would be awful.
Whenever I come across stuff like this I’m reminded of John Belushi’s ultra-PC rant in Lemmings: “Unless you are a black, unwed, lesbian mother, you are an OPPRESSOR!”
The problem is that anyone who makes more money than me who can’t live within his means, gets no fucking sympathy.
My wife and I (combined) make over $100,000 each year. We feel very well off. We don’t know what to do with it all.
We put well over $1000 a month into the stock market.
We travel. We eat out. We drink good alcohol. We have a nice TV. We could pay off our house twice.
You wanna tell me it’s hard to live on $50,000 a year? I’ll listen, because I’m not in that position.
You can’t live with $8 million in the bank, and your wife is going to leave you and you’re going to lose your house? Fuck you. You’re greedy and your appetites are shallow and insatiable. And, you married an ungrateful, superficial, fucking whore and it’s your own fault. Fuck you.
And I’m sure there are plenty of people in other countries who laugh their asses off when news about the American economy going in the toilet reaches them. Your point…?
Because, “Oh fuck, I can’t take my wife to Monaco this spring! ASHES AND SACKCLOTH!” is waaaaaaay the hell funnier than, “Oh fuck, I don’t know if my wife and I will have a place to live next month, and even if we do, I don’t think it will have electricity or running water and I’d better start stealing ketchup packets and creamers from work or we’ll starve.”
I don’t know if I’d go that far - I’d probably drive a $100,000 car if I could afford one - but yeah, if you marry a trophy wife, don’t be surprised if she leaves because you aren’t the champ anymore.
I wouldn’t. I consider that frivolous, and ostentatious and if you went broke when things went a little sour for you, I’d laugh at you for spending so much of your money on a depreciating asset.
At a certain point 98% of us “line our own pockets.”
Clap clap clap.
Well, sure, but CEOs get paid exorbitant sums whether their job performance is good or atrocious. I certainly don’t - do you?
Actually, yes.
Interesting that the author didn’t mention HD’s revenue increase from $40B/yr to $80B per year, and the profit increase from $2.6B to $5.8B/yr.
Under his leadership, the company now earns $3,200 million dollars a year more than it did when he arrived, and he earned $46 million each year.
Stock price, unfortunately, as as much to do with expectation as performance. Doubling your revenues and more than doubling profit over 7 years isn’t crappy performance, not when you’re starting out as a $40 billion dollar a year brick and mortar retail business. The CEO’s inability to match owner’s lofty expectations doesn’t mean he sucks, and doesn’t mean he did a bad job running the company.
I’m not saying I’d buy a $100,000 car if I had exactly $100,000 in disposable income. I’m saying I’d do it if it were within my means, as buying a $12,000 car is for me back in reality.
Side note: want to give me all that money you can’t find anything to do with? 
Exactly. I’m afraid the OP is a strawman. The article clearly states that:
Not “provide new jobs for thousands,” at any rate. Not any more. There was a time . . .
The thing is, the guy cited in the OP may have gone from $20 mil to $8 mil, but let’s be real here: he still has $8 million. He’s still the equivalent of a lottery winner. If he’s borrowing against his $8 mil to finance a $20 mil lifestyle, he’s a damned fool whatever his rationale.
If a lottery winner used $8 mil in winnings to finance a $20 mil lifestyle, we’d know EXACTLY what to think of them, wouldn’t we? Why should our feeling about this exec be any different.
Or his wife is brutally hot.
Speak for yourself. I don’t give a fuck about what Warren Buffett or anyone like him does. Well, it’s nice that he gave a lot to charity, but apart from that I really don’t care.
I know I do.
No, hes not. He worked for the money, has become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, supported by the income level he has earned.
Lottery winners are dudes who work in machine shops and have the money magicly “appear” one day. Then they go buy Harleys and get tattoos. The real bright ones then open thier own machine shop.
Lottery winners do not *work for or earn * the $8 mil.
Until his earned money wasn’t enough to support that lifestyle. At that point, he’s your machinist whose lottery winnings have dried up. If he doesn’t make the requisite changes to his lifestyle, then he’s fucked.
If someone who earns $200,000/year loses his job and can’t find anything for more than $80k, then he’s got to suck it up and make some changes. How does an extra zero change that conclusion?