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Apple chief executive Tim Cook gets $750m payout

bbc.com

71–80 of 360 posts

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

#71

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…

> My question is: how is Tim so productive that he does roughly 160,000 people’s work, or 1/8th of Foxconn’s total workforce? [2] /s Nobody has been making these productivity claims to begin with, but leftists commonly use productivity vs salary to ridicule CEO compensation. CEOs are paid for numerous reasons, for example board wants to trust the person with billions worth of assets which makes it sensible to pay cer…

[deleted]

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

#72

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?

> by their scarcity

By their perceived scarcity

Chances are that anyone other than Tim could have done just as well.

Still, this is over 10 years, and Apple shares have increased in value by 1900%.

If they were still the same value he’d have gotten 40M, for about 4M per year. Which is much more reasonable.

I still think it’s high, but in line with what others get.

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

#73

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?

> 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?

You do realize that it's possible to disagree with that, right?

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

#74

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…

For starters divide everything by 10 because this was for the last ten years (first line in the article). I think your suggestion that pay should be closely tied to productivity is kind of correct, but it’s missing a “value” component— and Cook provided a lot of value to a lot of people, 100s of billions. Pro rata he’s just getting a small commission. It’s not like you can hire 1600 workers and replace Cook with them.

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

#75
post #38

From the article : "In 2015, Mr Cook said he would give away his entire fortune before he dies, and is known to have donated tens of millions of dollars to charity". Success during one's life , paying it back to make the society a better place once gone. Take a bow, Mr Cook. What more can one ask for in a lifetime :)

He is already making society a better place by making products and services that people value. Charity isn't the only option for that.

He is only making society better if the value he is creating is larger than the value he is extracting.

You can build a regular home, get paid $5 million for it, the net act was probably negative for the system.

It's the same for companies turning profits: it's entirely possible to make profits in a system while actually shrinking the overall pie. This is common when certain activities are externalized (i.e. pollution).

Capitalism, broadly, does create a bigger pie, but it's a very uneven process and the true value creation doesn't always happen where the value is created. Value capture happens where the power is.

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

#77
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My question is: how is Tim so productive that he does roughly 160,000 people’s work, or 1/8th of Foxconn’s total workforce? [2] /s Nobody has been making these productivity claims to begin with, but leftists commonly use productivity vs salary to ridicule CEO compensation. CEOs are paid for numerous reasons, for example board wants to trust the person with billions worth of assets which makes it sensible to pay cer…

You are justifying someone being paid $750m. No one needs that much money. No one. Why are you defending this? It's obscene. Really reminds me of this https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/147/150/e2c...

Of course no one needs it. But the discussion here was if he had earned it, and he definitely has. Relative to value creation, I bet he’s very low in the CEO compensation league.

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

#78

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…

i would expect such reasoning on tabloids but on hn?

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

#79

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…

Adding two _trillion_ dollars of net worth sounds pretty productive to me.

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

#80

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?

People made the same claim about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and yet their companies greatly increased in value since they left.
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