Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#191

Post by thow-58d4e8b » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:15 PM UTC

Ecstatify wrote: post #9

Hokusai wrote: post #3

I thought that CEOs of American companies were legally required to maximize profit. Reducing Cook's salary sure whould increase profits.

You have to pay for talent. How many people in the world have the talent to run a $2.4 trillion company effectively.

Likely hundreds of thousands of people. The burden of proof ought to be on him/his proponents. From the rather scant publicly available material, I've never heard the man say anything profound, original, nor any other sign of exceptional competence. That's not bad in and of itself, not everyone has to be a controversial thinker, especially not a CEO of an established company that's minting gold every day. But we have no evidence that his level of ability is somehow beyond the reach of mere mortals.

Yes, Apple has ballooned in valuation. The question is how much of this is attributable to Tim Cook, how much to other Apple employees, how much to external factors (e.g. tech bubble) and how much of it is just sheer inertia.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#192

Post by UncleMeat » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:15 PM UTC

ChrisLomont wrote: post #110

UncleMeat wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it should be about productivity. People are highlighting a moral failing of society.

Is that moral failing related to jealously about how others choose to spend money that isn't theirs?

Money is not gifted to people by God. It is allocated to people by systems that society chooses. The idea of the specific "rightful" ownership of money we have today is not universal throughout history and can change.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#193

Post by yalogin » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:15 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #96

Grustaf wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put it this way. In the last 5 years Tim Cook has created $1900 b in shareholder value. If you divide that by 160000 you get $12 m. Now I don’t know how many phones a foxconn worker can make per year, but I do think it’s fair to assume they do not each create much more than $2 m in value annually. Or another way to see it. While creating 2 trillion dollars of value for shareholders, he has been paid about 1.5 b. As a…

Apple has how many employees? Cook was involved, but clearly is not the sole force contributing to that shareholder value.

Wow! Are you saying Musk and a regular employee in Tesla are the same? I am blown away. What do you think Satya Nadella’s role is in Microsoft’s revival after Ballmer?

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#194

Post by scyzoryk_xyz » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:16 PM UTC

beckman466 wrote: post #46

So according to this 2018 article by The Verge [1], Foxconn workers producing iGadgets in China earn on average $390.16 per month. Times that by twelve and we find that workers earn $4,681.92 per year on average. If we divide Tim's $750,000,000 bonus/payout this year by that $4,681.92 yearly Foxconn salary, we get 160,190 My question is: how is Tim so productive that he does roughly 160,000 people’s work, or 1/8th of…

Chinese workers don't work for Apple. Apple, like any giant manufacturing conglomerate, relies on a complex supply chain of manufacturers who supply them with all the necessary parts and components. These manufacturers are also purchasing from even higher in the supply chain. As a company, Apple buys parts from suppliers, period. None of their business how these suppliers squeeze to deliver these parts at the best prices and quality.

Before Apple arrived at the current position (2000-2010) they were a small player and it wasn't possible to squeeze parts suppliers. Tim Cook gets an enormous payout because he navigated the company towards flipping this relationship, because he is an expert in squeezing the best quality/price for the parts. Getting the iPhone below $1000 is what gets him his $750mil

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#195

Post by UncleMeat » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:16 PM UTC

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #112

UncleMeat wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it should be about productivity. People are highlighting a moral failing of society.

I'm from former USSR and I can hardly stand this commie foolishness. Go to some socialist country like Cuba, Venezuela that have eliminated the inequality (like the USSR did before), then talk about 'moral failings of the society'.

The USSR was an authoritarian hellscape. Most states in history have been that way. I am not convinced that deregulated capitalism is the only way to achieve non-authoritarian rule.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#196

Post by cascom » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC

beckman466 wrote: post #46

So according to this 2018 article by The Verge [1], Foxconn workers producing iGadgets in China earn on average $390.16 per month. Times that by twelve and we find that workers earn $4,681.92 per year on average. If we divide Tim's $750,000,000 bonus/payout this year by that $4,681.92 yearly Foxconn salary, we get 160,190 My question is: how is Tim so productive that he does roughly 160,000 people’s work, or 1/8th of…

Because those workers are not in a position to effect meaningful marginal value creation.

Let’s say you paid that $750m in bonuses to those factory workers, what value was created for shareholders? Zero, because Apple doesn’t have a capacity problem producing iPhones…

Who knows how much value Tim Cook created vs some other CEO (he may have destroyed value), we’ll never know, but I think the philosophy is to align incentives between shareholders and the people that are in positions to drive value.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#197

Post by thehappypm » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC

black_13 wrote: post #168

And he will pay no taxes on it I estimate.

Edgy but this is a simple taxable situation and downright impossible to avoid taxes on it. California is going to make a nice little amount of money here as is the IRS.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#198

Post by vincentmarle » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC

beckman466 wrote: post #46

So according to this 2018 article by The Verge [1], Foxconn workers producing iGadgets in China earn on average $390.16 per month. Times that by twelve and we find that workers earn $4,681.92 per year on average. If we divide Tim's $750,000,000 bonus/payout this year by that $4,681.92 yearly Foxconn salary, we get 160,190 My question is: how is Tim so productive that he does roughly 160,000 people’s work, or 1/8th of…

In a capitalist society, wealth accumulation by the capitalist class has no relation whatsoever to number of hours worked or level of productivity. It is in fact the opposite, their wealth increases non-linearly to any input; ownership is all that matters. The worker class however, the Foxconn employees you’re talking about, have a linear relationship to their income, and yes, are generally taken advantage of by the capitalist class. It doesn’t matter that Tim Cook is a salaried employee, he is still part of the capitalist class because his income depends largely on Apple’s stock performance.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#199

Post by amelius » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:18 PM UTC

consp wrote: post #27

amelius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to find 10x programmers in comparison. 10x CEOs are much harder to find.

> 10x CEOs are much harder to find Considering how much CEOs who lose massive a mounts at companies get rehired elsewhere I seriously doubt that in most cases a monkey with a typewriter would do worse. Plenty of possible CEOs to hire and easy to find, they just don't have the connections to get hired because they are in the Zoo. (/s if sarcasm was not effectively implied)

But he didn't lose massive amounts. He (well, he and his company) made massive amounts.

Re: Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

#200

Post by varispeed » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 12:18 PM UTC

rglullis wrote: post #59

beckman466 wrote: post #46

So according to this 2018 article by The Verge [1], Foxconn workers producing iGadgets in China earn on average $390.16 per month. Times that by twelve and we find that workers earn $4,681.92 per year on average. If we divide Tim's $750,000,000 bonus/payout this year by that $4,681.92 yearly Foxconn salary, we get 160,190 My question is: how is Tim so productive that he does roughly 160,000 people’s work, or 1/8th of…

When will we learn to stop making these silly calculations about "productivity" and understand that people are paid not by the value of their work, but by their scarcity? Any factory in China can replace most of their 160k employees overnight if they wanted to. How many Tim Cook's do you have lying around?

Isn't this a form of tax evasion? By not hiring local people they avoid paying tax on their work. They also avoid any sensible employment regulations by outsourcing it to not so compatible with human rights China. In my opinion this kind of avoidance should be illegal. It does not benefit anybody except Communist Party of China and Apple.