Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

seths.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 245 posts

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#71

Post by 5thaccount »

ghaff wrote: post #48
FredPret wrote: post #27

What a tone-deaf article. - Salary is absolutely the key factor when people pick jobs. The difference between a fun hobby and a great job is that you get paid a lot to do the latter. - Here he's saying that companies should create a buzz around jobs; but having good feelings about your low-paid job doesn't help you nearly as much as just having lots of extra new wealth. - Saying that because high-end employees are fa…

>Salary is absolutely the key factor when people pick jobs. Eh. It's a key factor. Once you get beyond a certain point, many people take lots of factors into account for jobs that are not otherwise basically interchangeable.

[dead]

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#72

Post by [deleted] »

mcguire wrote: post #32
latexr wrote: post #23

> (Aside: should the guys who drive an armored car that carries millions of dollars in bonds get paid more than the guys that drive an armored car that only carries thousands of dollars in cash? Does the amount of money handled change the difficult of the work?) Possibly, yes. The amount of money handled might affect the likelihood of a heist, and the required preparedness of the robbers. Which in turn requires more…

Want to know something weird? A convenience store or liquor store is much more likely to be robbed than a bank.

[deleted]

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#73

Post by TrackerFF »

I've said this before, but the managing director of the Norwegian Pension Fund - which currently sits at a cool $1.56 trillion, has a $657k salary. Nothing more, nothing less. The return for last year was around 25%

Some of the fund managers there make more than the managing director, but still, we're talking about a "modest" figure in the $1mm-$2mm range. That's paltry pay compared to the big bucks made in hedge funds and private equity.

The pension fund could have paid out hundreds of millions to their fund managers, and it would only have been a rounding error in the grand scheme of things...but still they manage to attract top talent.

There's this culture on Wall Street (or Connecticut, or London...) that they are the only ones that can bring big returns, because they're the right combination of correct pedigree, professional experience, network, talent, etc.

In the end, it's just good salesmanship. Tons of funds deliver mediocre returns, while making bank.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#74

Post by latexr »

mcguire wrote: post #32
latexr wrote: post #23

> (Aside: should the guys who drive an armored car that carries millions of dollars in bonds get paid more than the guys that drive an armored car that only carries thousands of dollars in cash? Does the amount of money handled change the difficult of the work?) Possibly, yes. The amount of money handled might affect the likelihood of a heist, and the required preparedness of the robbers. Which in turn requires more…

Want to know something weird? A convenience store or liquor store is much more likely to be robbed than a bank.

That isn’t weird at all. A residential home is also more likely to be robbed than Fort Knox. It goes back to the required preparedness of the robbers.

Either way, I wasn’t the one who picked the example. Seth didn’t ask “should a liquor store employee be payed more than a bank teller”. Which wouldn’t be a good example either, as we’d be comparing too many different axis.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#75

Post by SteveGerencser »

mc32 wrote: post #16
ipaddr wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you end up with money seekers like failed politicians?

We need normal schools that teach teachers like we used to. There are teachers who know less math than students and speak less than perfect English. If you’re a teacher you should have some basic competency thresholds.

My wife (engineer) taught a class called 'Math for Teachers', which was designed to teach elementary school teachers basic math. Not how to teach it, just how to do basic math themselves. A significant number should have failed that class but the administration refused to allow her to fail teachers who were failing for 'reasons'.

She quit the job.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#76

Post by melenaboija »

ifyoubuildit wrote: post #60
danbruc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consuming without working for it is immoral, flying privat jets and traveling more is bad for the environment. Those are not reasons in favor of higher salaries.

The idea here is that they did the work up front and then saved to accumulate wealth which they could spend later. Is that immoral to you?

That is your idea, my idea here is that it is immoral to pay insane amounts of money to keep promoting inequality which in some cases, as flying jet planes, also involves having more power to dismantle the planet we all live in.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#77

Post by danbruc »

ifyoubuildit wrote: post #60
danbruc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consuming without working for it is immoral, flying privat jets and traveling more is bad for the environment. Those are not reasons in favor of higher salaries.

The idea here is that they did the work up front and then saved to accumulate wealth which they could spend later. Is that immoral to you?

Yes. If you work for 10 years and then just consume stuff for the rest of your life without lifting a finger, stuff for which other people work all day long to produce it while at the same time probably not enjoying a quality of life anywhere near yours, that is deeply unjust and I consider it immoral to desire such a life.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#78

Post by lkdfjlkdfjlg »

> (Aside: should the guys who drive an armored car that carries millions of dollars in bonds get paid more than the guys that drive an armored car that only carries thousands of dollars in cash? Does the amount of money handled change the difficult of the work?)

Aside from the bigger point of the article, what a horrible analogy. Yes, of course handling more money makes your work more "difficult", where any reasonable definition of difficult has to incorporate the fact that bad people will do crazier things for more money than less.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#79

Post by karolist »

toast0 wrote: post #18

> After a million dollars or so in salary, the absolute amount that a person is paid has no real impact on their life. They can't eat more meals in a day or wear more shoes. What matters to the manager is the relative amount. Sure, nobody needs more than a million dollars in annual compensation (in 2024 dollars), but relative amount gets you to your never need to work again number faster or slower. You might still wo…

This, I can't believe all these "money doesn't bring you happiness after a certain level" tropes keep ignoring saving and investing angle, just lazy. Or accumulating wealth for your kids.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#80

Post by n2d4 »

srackey wrote: post #56
Aqueous wrote: post #19

I guess I'm not sure that there's a practical difference between "It's marketing" and "This is what the market rate is for a CEO." In other words, firms need to pay this much because that's what other firms are paying (at least.) That's not marketing - that's just the unfettered market at work. Which is why it needs to be fettered. I agree with the salary cap idea, because the market will naturally keep raising the p…

A salary cap doesn’t change the market rate! It just obfuscates it. Salaries for public companies locked at 10M/yr? Ok, now firms have to compete on amenities. (Your current firm gives you a free car? Ours gives a jet, a personal Michelin star cook, and complimentary beverages)

Company benefits are also a form of salary. If your company gifts you a free car, they have to tax it as such.
Post reply on HN