Sam Zell: 'The 1 percent work harder'
Billionaire real estate investor Sam Zell agreed with capital pioneer Tom Perkins that wealthy Americans are being unfairly criticized and said that the 1 percent work harder.

"The 1 percent are getting pummeled because it's politically convenient to do so," Zell said, an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s "In the Loop" with Betty Liu.

People "should not talk about envy of the 1 percent, they should talk about emulating the 1 percent. The 1 percent work harder, the 1 percent are much bigger factors in all forms of our society."

...

Mazille wrote:Even if I were inclined to let that stand. Do they work several million to billion times harder/smarter/faster/better to justify their disproportionately high share in... well... everything?

Calilasseia wrote:An apposite article is this one ...

THWOTH wrote:The wealthy and privileged always say that. It's part of the lie the rich tell themselves to justify getting paid more. And that's not to say that getting paid more makes you rich but just that being rich gets you paid more.

How much harder is it to work in an office environment on assured benefits and bonuses than dig ditches for six days a week where you get paid by the yard? They might say that the CEO of transcorp has far more responsibilities than a ditch digger, and I guess that might be so to some extent, but more responsibility than a train driver or emergency nurse, who have people's lives in their hands day after day?

Darwinsbulldog wrote:

THWOTH wrote:The wealthy and privileged always say that. It's part of the lie the rich tell themselves to justify getting paid more. And that's not to say that getting paid more makes you rich but just that being rich gets you paid more.

How much harder is it to work in an office environment on assured benefits and bonuses than dig ditches for six days a week where you get paid by the yard? They might say that the CEO of transcorp has far more responsibilities than a ditch digger, and I guess that might be so to some extent, but more responsibility than a train driver or emergency nurse, who have people's lives in their hands day after day?

Lives arn't important you idiot--money is. The money god may not be questioned.

Arcanyn wrote:They're clearly demigods with amazing superpowers. I bet one of them could build an entire skyscraper, just by themselves, in a matter of hours. And I'm sure they could easily handle tens of thousands of medical cases at once. And they would make amazing superheroes, because they are clearly capable of doing the equivalent work of an entire police force single-handedly. That's why they need to be paid that much, because it's clear that however hard someone works, one of these amazing divine entities will easily manage to do tens of thousands of times that much work in the same period of time.

Lives are important. While the nurse is responsible for only 10-20 lives at a time, the CEO could have thousands of people and their families who depended on him for livelihood.

quas wrote:

Darwinsbulldog wrote:

THWOTH wrote:The wealthy and privileged always say that. It's part of the lie the rich tell themselves to justify getting paid more. And that's not to say that getting paid more makes you rich but just that being rich gets you paid more.

How much harder is it to work in an office environment on assured benefits and bonuses than dig ditches for six days a week where you get paid by the yard? They might say that the CEO of transcorp has far more responsibilities than a ditch digger, and I guess that might be so to some extent, but more responsibility than a train driver or emergency nurse, who have people's lives in their hands day after day?

Lives arn't important you idiot--money is. The money god may not be questioned.

Lives are important. While the nurse is responsible for only 10-20 lives at a time, the CEO could have thousands of people and their families who depended on him for livelihood.

Darwinsbulldog wrote:quas wrote:-

Lives are important. While the nurse is responsible for only 10-20 lives at a time, the CEO could have thousands of people and their families who depended on him for livelihood.

Yaabutt but the vast, vast majority of nurses actually do care for their patients. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for CEO's to announce multi-billion dollar profits and the layoffs of thousands of workers in the same breath!

quas wrote:Doctors and nurses often get away with medical negligence, just as CEOs often have to declare bankruptcy and start all over.

I think if there is any unjustice, it is our skewed perception of value that allows an attention-whore "celebrity" without any discernible talent (including Donald Trump) to earn more than food-producing farmers.