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

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

#91

Post by willcipriano » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:41 AM 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…

What I find interesting is none of the outlets who are currntly proclaiming that there is a worker shortage ever mention the executive shortage. The executive shortage has massive impacts on firms, imagine how much value could be generated for the shareholders by the 750 million that was just blown on compensation? We should create tax incentives for firms to offshore their executives, as well as immigration programs that shackle executives in a job with fears of deportation for them and their families should they dare ask to be compensated like their domestic peers in order to improve the fitness and agility of the US economy.

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

#92

Post by Grustaf » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:41 AM UTC

DasIch wrote: post #84

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…

> In the last 5 years Tim Cook has created $1900 b in shareholder value. That's just obviously not the case unless Tim is the only person working at Apple. All employees contributed that and it's perfectly reasonable to discuss how these rewards should be distributed, even if they should be distributed to shareholders at all.

No matter how you look at it, a CEO that earns less than 0.1% of the shareholder value created under his watch can’t reasonably be called overpaid.

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

#93

Post by breakfastduck » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:41 AM UTC

ChrisKnott wrote: post #80

rglullis wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A building is only as strong as its foundations. Companies are the same.

I'd say that the foundation Steve Jobs left (Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad) was pretty damn important to that success, considering they still have essentially the exact same product lineup.

Same goes for MS, Windows, Office, Xbox did not all come about after Bill Gates' departure.

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

#94

Post by diordiderot » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:42 AM UTC

spottybanana wrote: post #55

vmurthy wrote: 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.

Just like the Sineloa Cartel! People would die to get their hands in their product.

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

#95

Post by eliaspro » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:42 AM UTC

vmurthy wrote: 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 :)

And during his lifetime, this money is locked away, only accessible by him, taken out of circulation and thereby not adding any worth against ever-growing inequality, supporting economic prosperity or tax-funded investments.

This is just once again a case of philanthropic green-washing of what should be actually simply heavily taxed.

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

#96

Post by UncleMeat » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:43 AM UTC

Grustaf wrote: post #70

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…

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.

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

#97

Post by Someone » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:43 AM UTC

whack wrote: post #35

> 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. I'm normally a proponent of reducing income inequality. But this has got me thinking. Is the world actively better off when billionaires like Cook/Gates/Buffett make a ton of money. Consider the alternative: someone in the 75th percentile of USA income gets a fat raise. Mo…

There’s nothing preventing “someone in the 75th percentile of USA income” from signing that pledge, is there?

Also, why would one assume billionaires are better at judging what’s good for society than, say, elected officials or people currently making peanuts working in Amazon warehouses?

One could argue that the bubble billionaires live in is further separated from society at large than that of those people.

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

#98

Post by Kiro » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:44 AM UTC

akie wrote: post #69

spottybanana wrote: post #58

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...

I have no problem defending billionaires who I think are good people, such as Bill Gates.

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

#99

Post by ubercore » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:44 AM UTC

mombul wrote: post #88

Aeolun wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

So the fact that Apple's share price has increased 1,200% since he took over is just a coincidence?

Maybe, maybe not, but I think the idea is that it's hard to say with certainty. Apple is large and complex enough that any number of factors could have lead to that share price increase. My personal opinion is that probably yeah he had a good chunk to do with it. But it's hard to say that with certainty, it's certainly worth discussing and not taking for granted.

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

#100

Post by rglullis » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 11:44 AM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #72

rglullis wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's been 10 years since Jobs died and I'm yet to see anyone even speculate any other name that would've been better than Cook.

Your comment is typical from someone who thinks themselves to be smarter than the whole board. Or the investors that never challenged Tim's management, Or all of Apple's upper management who would love to find a way to take his spot and wouldn't care about exploiting some of Tim's weaknesses to dethrone the king...