most overpaid profession?

I don't think teachers are paid enough. Education is massively important and it should be incentivized to get our best people into that profession.

My most overpaid list is people like real estate dealers, Washington lobbyists and pharma salespeople

NBA players that sit on the bench.

Average salary of an NBA player is seven million dollars for one season.

Hedge Fund CEO.

Tom Connors wrote:

NBA players that sit on the bench.

Average salary of an NBA player is seven million dollars for one season.

But the owners aren't?

They make billions and nobody is paying a dime to watch them do a damn thing.

Come on people.

The owners don’t make a salary, they invest in the team and risk their own money. In fact, most are losing money right now with no basketball due to COVID.

Tom Connors wrote:

NBA players that sit on the bench.

Average salary of an NBA player is seven million dollars for one season.

I'm pretty sure that this is incorrect unless you are intentionally trying to misrepresent NBA salaries by taking a very liberal approach to your calculation of the "average."

If 9 guys each earn $50k per year and one guy earns $1 billion per year, does the average guy earn $100 million per year in your mind?

Giles Corey wrote:

Hedge Fund CEO.

All CEOs.

Past 20-30 years they've talked their salaries up by pretending they have a special skillset that is rare. It's not.

They're a cartel who vote payrises for each other by sitting as directors on each other's boards.

Uhh wrote:

Giles Corey wrote:

Hedge Fund CEO.

All CEOs.

Past 20-30 years they've talked their salaries up by pretending they have a special skillset that is rare. It's not.

They're a cartel who vote payrises for each other by sitting as directors on each other's boards.

Agree with that entirely.

Having worked at many large hospitals, I never figured out what the CEOs do to justify $500,000 per year . In fact all hospital “administrators” are vastly overpaid. They’ve never worked with patient care directly and are out of touch with what goes on in the trenches.

I would say any government employee, as their wages and benefits are not dictated by the free market. A lot of other professions people are mentioning make a lot of money, but their compensation is typically related to what they produce (doctors, professional athletes, pilots, even Kardashians (much as I hate to admit it, there are enough idiots out there watching their shows and buying their stuff).

joedirt wrote:

I would say any government employee, as their wages and benefits are not dictated by the free market. A lot of other professions people are mentioning make a lot of money, but their compensation is typically related to what they produce (doctors, professional athletes, pilots, even Kardashians (much as I hate to admit it, there are enough idiots out there watching their shows and buying their stuff).

Free markets do not determine compensation of highly compensated people when those people or people who are beholden to them effectively get to decide their compensation packages. Most executive level people at big companies are obscenely overcompensated. I know a guy who barely got through a crappy state school and went to work doing construction. He worked his way up to being a supervisor and then went to work at Shell supervising construction of oil rigs in the Gulf. He got promoted to regional VP of construction for the Gulf Coast region. His salary was $300k with big stock options every year. He just sits in an office and oversees construction projects.

joedirt wrote:

I would say any government employee, as their wages and benefits are not dictated by the free market. A lot of other professions people are mentioning make a lot of money, but their compensation is typically related to what they produce (doctors, professional athletes, pilots, even Kardashians (much as I hate to admit it, there are enough idiots out there watching their shows and buying their stuff).

Just because their wages are not dictated directly by the free market does not mean they are overpaid - or are you suggesting government workers shouldn't get paid at all? The only way to determine their value is to compare their salaries to private sector employees doing a similar job. Also, unions distort the wage market in both public and private sectors.

The salary of the governor, for example, is $90,000. That certainly doesn't seem excessive compared to what a typical CEO would make.

Rainy Day wrote:

The owners don’t make a salary, they invest in the team and risk their own money. In fact, most are losing money right now with no basketball due to COVID.

Who is the last owner in the NBA who did not make a ton of money of his ownership?

You really think owners put their own money into buying a team?

You think money invested is more important than talented labor?

You are a naive one

Giles Corey wrote:

Rainy Day wrote:

The owners don’t make a salary, they invest in the team and risk their own money. In fact, most are losing money right now with no basketball due to COVID.

Who is the last owner in the NBA who did not make a ton of money of his ownership?

You really think owners put their own money into buying a team?

You think money invested is more important than talented labor?

You are a naive one

All the sports have become very profitable over the past 20-30 yrs.

Victor Kiam lost money on the New England Patriots and had to sell in 1992 when he was facing bankruptcy. Bum Bright wasn't doing well he sold the Cowboys to Jerry Jones in 1989 for $140m.

Since then the NFL have focused on making money and controlled costs through the salary cap.

I'd imagine there are examples of that in the NBA if you go back to the 50s, 60s, 70s if not later.

Wall Street parasites.

Uhh wrote:

Giles Corey wrote:

[quote]Rainy Day wrote:

The owners don’t make a salary, they invest in the team and risk their own money. In fact, most are losing money right now with no basketball due to COVID.

Who is the last owner in the NBA who did not make a ton of money of his ownership?

You really think owners put their own money into buying a team?

You think money invested is more important than talented labor?

You are a naive one

All the sports have become very profitable over the past 20-30 yrs.

Victor Kiam lost money on the New England Patriots and had to sell in 1992 when he was facing bankruptcy. Bum Bright wasn't doing well he sold the Cowboys to Jerry Jones in 1989 for $140m.

Gee.

Only had to go back 30 years to find an owner that you say lost money on the team they owned.

let's fact check.

Kiam paid $83 million for the Pats in 1988 and sold it a few years later for $174 million.

So even your 30 year old example does not hold water

Realtors.

I can find houses online from a million different services tied to the MLS, and I have a car. Several services will allow me into the house with a code. What value does a Realtor have, other than, holding a key that might open the door, or knowing the key code I can get otherwise?

Mine. Data Scientist in corporate America. I get paid well into the six-figures to do made-up math, which is presented as 'evidence' in support of decisions that would have been made anyways.

The whole thing is pointless and ritualistic.

bugdikk wrote:

Uhh wrote:

All CEOs.

Past 20-30 years they've talked their salaries up by pretending they have a special skillset that is rare. It's not.

They're a cartel who vote payrises for each other by sitting as directors on each other's boards.

Agree with that entirely.

Having worked at many large hospitals, I never figured out what the CEOs do to justify $500,000 per year . In fact all hospital “administrators” are vastly overpaid. They’ve never worked with patient care directly and are out of touch with what goes on in the trenches.

Especially any CEO of a Fortune 500 company that is continually posting losses. At my old company, employees were in pay freezes and the company stock was tanking, but the CEOs salary kept going up. Train wreck.

Giles Corey wrote:

Uhh wrote:

All the sports have become very profitable over the past 20-30 yrs.

Victor Kiam lost money on the New England Patriots and had to sell in 1992 when he was facing bankruptcy. Bum Bright wasn't doing well he sold the Cowboys to Jerry Jones in 1989 for $140m.

Gee.

Only had to go back 30 years to find an owner that you say lost money on the team they owned.

let's fact check.

Kiam paid $83 million for the Pats in 1988 and sold it a few years later for $174 million.

So even your 30 year old example does not hold water

So what did he spend on the team between buying and selling?

Or to put it another way, if I buy a house for $1m and sell it for $2m but spend $5m renovating it, have I made a profit or loss?