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Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

arstechnica.com

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Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#71

Post by twoodfin »

henryfjordan wrote: post #16
mikeyouse wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we should do a sovereign wealth fund kind of thing where that type of funding grants the US taxpayer some common shares with no voting preference -- but if you think pure ROI -- $1.7B in investment to save millions and millions of lives worldwide isn't actually that problematic.

The investment isn't the problem, the profits are. We clearly could've only spent $1.3B for the same outcome.

$400 million in Moderna stock in 2023 doesn’t pay for vaccine clinical delivery in 2020!

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#72

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

rank0 wrote: post #69
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should do some napkin math to see if it’ll actually make a difference. The napkin math says: 3900 employees. 400M is 2435x median income in the company, so that's $164k. So if we gave the CEO the same income as the median, and split the 400M across everybody else, they'd all have received a $102k bonus, a 62%-of-median-income bonus. You tell me if a 62% bonus for the year would make any difference in your life…

Very convenient of you to entirely sidestep discussion of the original point: “80% income tax bracket at >$100M” It’s ridiculous that so many users of this startup accelerator forum want to ban private ownership. I guess I’ll bite… Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership? It would be more lucrative to find the easiest job and do the bare minimum than be CEO…

> Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership?

I don't know. Ask the people who started companies when the top marginal rate was approx 90%. Seemed to work out ok for them.

I have not proposed banning private ownership. The issue is how much of the revenue from a corporation can end up as private income. You may see those as connected, or even the same issue. This is a problem, in and of itself.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#73

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

rank0 wrote: post #69
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should do some napkin math to see if it’ll actually make a difference. The napkin math says: 3900 employees. 400M is 2435x median income in the company, so that's $164k. So if we gave the CEO the same income as the median, and split the 400M across everybody else, they'd all have received a $102k bonus, a 62%-of-median-income bonus. You tell me if a 62% bonus for the year would make any difference in your life…

Very convenient of you to entirely sidestep discussion of the original point: “80% income tax bracket at >$100M” It’s ridiculous that so many users of this startup accelerator forum want to ban private ownership. I guess I’ll bite… Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership? It would be more lucrative to find the easiest job and do the bare minimum than be CEO…

> Very convenient of you to entirely sidestep discussion of the original point

I didn't sidestep it at all.

If the top marginal rate is 80%, a company might think differently about how to distribute its revenue, and one option would be a more egalitarian distribution.

But even if the company doesn't, the tax rate itself creates redistribution options to the entire public. So the same sort of scenario applies, except that the beneficiaries might just be 2000 people in some sort of particularly acute situation, unrelated to moderna. You tell me if you think that would make a difference.

Also, tone policing is generally discouraged on HN.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#74

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

twoodfin wrote: post #70
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should do some napkin math to see if it’ll actually make a difference. The napkin math says: 3900 employees. 400M is 2435x median income in the company, so that's $164k. So if we gave the CEO the same income as the median, and split the 400M across everybody else, they'd all have received a $102k bonus, a 62%-of-median-income bonus. You tell me if a 62% bonus for the year would make any difference in your life…

Pretty sure the median Moderna employee who’s been around as long as the CEO has seen some very nice pop to their stock comp as well.

Probably not $400M, though.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#75

Post by rank0 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #72
rank0 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very convenient of you to entirely sidestep discussion of the original point: “80% income tax bracket at >$100M” It’s ridiculous that so many users of this startup accelerator forum want to ban private ownership. I guess I’ll bite… Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership? It would be more lucrative to find the easiest job and do the bare minimum than be CEO…

> Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership? I don't know. Ask the people who started companies when the top marginal rate was approx 90%. Seemed to work out ok for them. I have not proposed banning private ownership. The issue is how much of the revenue from a corporation can end up as private income. You may see those as connected, or even the same issue. Th…

Did you even read TFA? The 400M came from planned stock sales. How are you gonna distribute that money if not by taking his ownership?

And your suggestion that anything remotely similar happened to the Reagan era corporations is plainly false.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#76

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

rank0 wrote: post #75
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership? I don't know. Ask the people who started companies when the top marginal rate was approx 90%. Seemed to work out ok for them. I have not proposed banning private ownership. The issue is how much of the revenue from a corporation can end up as private income. You may see those as connected, or even the same issue. Th…

Did you even read TFA? The 400M came from planned stock sales. How are you gonna distribute that money if not by taking his ownership? And your suggestion that anything remotely similar happened to the Reagan era corporations is plainly false.

Stock compensation is compensation. It can be distributed the same way as any other compensation: either handed out differently to other employees or taxed. At 90%.

> And your suggestion that anything remotely similar happened to the Reagan era corporations is plainly false.

This is getting tiresome. Highest marginal tax rate in the pre-reagan era was around 90%. People started companies. People got rich. Not Elon rich, or Bezos rich, but rich. The 90% tax rate didn't prevent them from being rich, it limited how rich they became relative to their income/compensation.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#77

Post by rank0 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #76
rank0 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you even read TFA? The 400M came from planned stock sales. How are you gonna distribute that money if not by taking his ownership? And your suggestion that anything remotely similar happened to the Reagan era corporations is plainly false.

Stock compensation is compensation. It can be distributed the same way as any other compensation: either handed out differently to other employees or taxed. At 90%. > And your suggestion that anything remotely similar happened to the Reagan era corporations is plainly false. This is getting tiresome. Highest marginal tax rate in the pre-reagan era was around 90%. People started companies. People got rich. Not Elon ri…

He already paid taxes on the compensation! He sold stock that had previously vested and taxes are calculated at the time of vestment.

What's so special about the Moderna employees? They already make much more than the median American income. You're redistributing wealth from the ultra rich to the rich. Even if the USGOV took 100% of that $400M, that'd be a whopping dollar per American.

History is littered with failed "utopian" communist/socialist states. The ultra rich will always be able to avoid taxes legally or illegally. They're not gonna report income that gets taxed at 90%. The math doesn't work out. If we magically take 400M additional taxes from 1000 individuals annually that wouldn't even cover our federal debt obligations.

EDIT:

It's telling that you need to resort to quips about goal posts. I suggest you take a moment to read about history and macroeconomics...your brain must be tired from all these mental gymnastics.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#78

Post by Nullabillity »

rank0 wrote: post #69
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should do some napkin math to see if it’ll actually make a difference. The napkin math says: 3900 employees. 400M is 2435x median income in the company, so that's $164k. So if we gave the CEO the same income as the median, and split the 400M across everybody else, they'd all have received a $102k bonus, a 62%-of-median-income bonus. You tell me if a 62% bonus for the year would make any difference in your life…

Very convenient of you to entirely sidestep discussion of the original point: “80% income tax bracket at >$100M” It’s ridiculous that so many users of this startup accelerator forum want to ban private ownership. I guess I’ll bite… Why would anyone start/own a company if the government is just gonna liquidate your legal ownership? It would be more lucrative to find the easiest job and do the bare minimum than be CEO…

Ignoring all of your other garbage… starting a company is not an inherent good, and filtering out sociopathic career climbers would absolutely be an improvement.

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#79

Post by Nullabillity »

Karunamon wrote: post #8

That comparison to employee median salary, and not including in the headline the fact that this is from stock sales scheduled in advance, is a blatant attempt to sow outrage (clickbait) rather than honestly inform.

Comp is comp…?

Re: Moderna CEO made $400M last year–2,435x the median salary of employees

#80

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

rank0 wrote: post #77
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stock compensation is compensation. It can be distributed the same way as any other compensation: either handed out differently to other employees or taxed. At 90%. > And your suggestion that anything remotely similar happened to the Reagan era corporations is plainly false. This is getting tiresome. Highest marginal tax rate in the pre-reagan era was around 90%. People started companies. People got rich. Not Elon ri…

He already paid taxes on the compensation! He sold stock that had previously vested and taxes are calculated at the time of vestment. What's so special about the Moderna employees? They already make much more than the median American income. You're redistributing wealth from the ultra rich to the rich. Even if the USGOV took 100% of that $400M, that'd be a whopping dollar per American. History is littered with failed…

I recommend a good physical therapist. With all that dragging the goal posts around, your shoulders will probably need some work.
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