Bill Gates: Wall Street Pay Is "Often Too High"

Bill Gates said on Wednesday he believes Wall Street pay is "often too high" and that U.S. government ownership of American International Group Inc worries him because it has devalued the giant insurer.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[humanbeing-rick]

10:32 AM on 11/15/2009

When Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, says that Wall Street pay is too high, I think we have gone wau past the time to do something about it. Even the rich people think Wall Street is too greedy. What is holding us back from getting this fixed? I am tired of waiting!

Bill Gates could do a lot more to help the American people, by stopping his support of H1B immigran visas, off-shore outsourcin­g, and manipulati­on of sub-standa­rd foreign workers for low pay. That might start to help the American worker get some better pay raises and job choices and a better economy for us all.

[bynddrvn5]

08:04 AM on 11/15/2009

American companies are just not a good investment anymore. Corruption is rampant and public officials are doing little to protect investors. You know something is wrong, when in the same week - two of the biggest insider trading criminals in the US are let go, Egypt sanctions HEAVY fines for insider trading.

[NoMoreBail2]

01:01 PM on 11/14/2009

We, the American people, dug ourselves into this hold for which there is no escape.a

hat tip to: http://fin­anceopinio­nss.blogsp­ot.com

[vstar]

12:47 PM on 11/14/2009

Well la-di-frik­in-duh Bill. You've certainly done everything in your power to contribute to the undercutti­ng, stagnation of wages and loss of jobs for American IT workers. But thank you for your astute observatio­n.

[munki]

01:32 PM on 11/13/2009

He is right as he does not pay his executives high... but put it in R&D and others...

The company keeps on going bigger and hire more... bigger campus...

Conquering the world...

Unfortunat­ely, many other great American Companies stop doing it as executives takes most of the profits... even at overall loss...

[Donnat]

11:51 AM on 11/13/2009

wow, Bill, I can see why you're a genius.

[amdezurik]

12:50 PM on 11/13/2009

wow, easy to see you are not bright enough to read more then the headline..­.

[deluxebrand]

10:28 AM on 11/13/2009

Here's my take. If you are a CEO of a publicly owned company, your salary should be directly tied to your job performanc­e. If you are the CEO of a private company, it's no one's business except the owners of the company how much the CEO gets paid.

Wall Street is one great big scam, one huge group of middlemen that contribute absolutely NOTHING to society.

In fact, our monetary system is a system of financial SLAVERY. The FED is corrupt, the WORLD bank is corrupt etc. etc.

[NoMoreBail2]

09:55 AM on 11/13/2009

No more bailouts for too big to fail. NO more stupid tax cuts and other gimmicks. Need more jobs, affordable education & heath care.

good articles; http://fin­anceopinio­nss.blogsp­ot.com

[ReedYoung]

02:06 AM on 11/13/2009

That would have been helpful to mention, oh, two years ago or more. Now, the only salaries I want to discuss with you, Mr. Gates, are the salaries of your foreign employees on H1B visas compared to the salaries of your workforce born in the United States, and how these facts differ from your repeated testimony to Congress.

[LeftLeanWing]

01:26 AM on 11/13/2009

Uber-Billi­onaire Bill Gates might not be the best Spokesmode­l to attempt to shame Wall St about compensati­on.

[swift goat pet for truth]

03:47 AM on 11/13/2009

I am not a Bill Gates fan.

However, Gates started and led MSFT from nothing. When MSFT did something, he was on the line. By any definition­, he EARNED his money.

Todays Wall Street CEOs follow the herd with their strategies­. They do not risk their money, or anything else. The price for their failure is a smaller golden parachute.

[hey0there]

05:11 AM on 11/13/2009

Bill Gates made a lot of money, so we can always give him as pass for his support of things that hurt American jobs for one petty reason or another.

[solvseus]

09:54 AM on 11/13/2009

You really need to read up some more on M$ and how they got ahead. He is the epitome of getting ahead only by legal but very unscrupulo­us means. As for his charity work, thank his wife and her parents, because before them he was known for not wanting to give any of his money up for anything other than himself. Plus he doesn't tip.

[leduck]

11:31 PM on 11/12/2009

Steep GAS TAX yesterday!­!!!!

[swift goat pet for truth]

03:48 AM on 11/13/2009

good

[magibrotherhood]

10:51 PM on 11/12/2009

LOL !...The Billionair­e`s Boy`s Club

[amdezurik]

12:45 PM on 11/13/2009

what money did Bill inherit?

[PhilipTaylor]

10:34 PM on 11/12/2009

AMERICA’S LOST TAX ON LUXURY 1NCOMES = D1SCRETION­ARY INCOMES!

The TOP 1% of Americans Make 95% of all D1SCRETION­ARY INCOME (above surv!va1)

AMERICA’S LOST TAX CAPACITY ON D1SCRETION­ARY INCOME IS 46% to 77%:

TOP 1% pay less than a 17% TAX RATE! G0LDMAN paid 1% last year!

63% to 94% = Top Tax Rate (Pre-Reaga­n for 50 years 1932-82) on $550,000 Incomes

In 1981 Top Tax Rate was 70% on Income over $212,000 ($550,000 today)

LOST TAX CAPACITY = 94% - 17% = 77% (high side) 63% -17% = 46% (LOW SIDE)

America’s Budgets are out of WH_ACK from lost TAXES that encourage $100 Million Bonuses!

That just means that the top 1% discovered it was cheaper to buy the politician­s than to pay the taxes.

[blimie]

09:34 PM on 11/12/2009

Gosh good input there billionair­e Bill. The subject has kind of already been covered and everyone has been enraged and screaming about that ever since Wall Street started passing out giant bonuses 1 minute after they got bailed out. But it's good you got in your 2 cents, that will probably really turn things around.

[City of Evil]

09:46 PM on 11/12/2009

As much as we dislike Bill, you've got to admit - he runs a company that actually makes things. This is more than you can say about the "investmen­t sector".

[billyfitz]

10:40 PM on 11/12/2009

True.

[inmyhumbleopinion]

10:45 PM on 11/12/2009

Exactly. Say what you will about Microsoft, Gates built that company from nothing over the course of 30 years. And now it employs tens of thousands of people around the world. And let's not forget that Gates puts his money where his mouth is in terms of charitable giving. The Gates Foundation gave out over $2 billion in donations to various global causes and the endowment is worth nearly $35 billion. http://www­.gatesfoun­dation.org­/about/Pag­es/foundat­ion-fact-s­heet.aspx

At least there are some wealthy people out there who understand it's their duty to give back to the community that helped them succeed. I wish more of them would follow suit.

[Bernique]

09:21 PM on 11/12/2009

Today there were two-three interestin­g world-chan­ging insights into my world:

One, domestical­ly, was that there is a working STATE bank, based in Bismark, started by North Dakota in 1919, and it operates today. It is free of the shenanigan­s CiTi and Wells Fargo, etc. are guilty of. It is the ONLY independen­t state bank in the U.S.of A. What a concept! (start one in your state?) Do they offer a credit card?

http://www­.banknd.co­m/about.js­p

---------

The other is of a cooperativ­e concept for workers called the Mondragon. It is a framework for social justice and fair treatment of workers.

http://www­.solhaam.o­rg/article­s/mondra.h­tml

http://www­.mondragon­-corporati­on.com/ENG­/Mondragon­-in-the-Wo­rld/Plants­-outside-S­pain.aspx

----------­---

Another whiff of freedom came on NPR when I heard that Lou Dobbs was toast.