A Single Hedge-Fund Hustler Makes More Than 85,000 Teachers: Why Are Our Priorities So Messed Up?

Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Single Hedge-Fund Hustler Makes More Than 85,000 Teachers: Why Are Our Priorities So Messed Up?

libertarians-and-stoya:

The top hedge fund guru, Raymond Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, hauled in $3 billion, which comes to a whopping $1,442,308 an HOUR, (assuming he worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks.)

It would take the typical U.S. family 29.2 YEARS to earn as much as Mr. Dalio earned in one HOUR.

How much is $3 billion per year?

It’s hard to wrap one’s head around a number as large as a billion. Here’s some context…

That’s as much as 60,673 typical U.S. families earn: Just think about that for a moment. One person earns as much as sixty thousand hard working middle class families.

That’s enough to hire 85,911 entry level teachers: While we’re laying off teachers right and left to close budgets that were destroyed by the Wall Street crash, Wall Street’s top hedge fund manager earns as much in one year as tens of thousands of entry level teachers who on average earn $34,920 a year. That what we get for failing to rein in Wall Street.

That’s enough to hire 17,143 pediatricians: How is it possible for money managers to be as “valuable” as thousands of doctors who protect the heath of our children and earn on average $175,000 a year?

That’s enough to wipe out the student loan debts for 120,000 graduates. The average loan burden for graduating students is now $25,000. One year of income from Mr. Dalio could wipe-out the entire average student debt of 120,000 graduates.

That’s enough to wipe out the negative equity of 46,153 average homeowners: Today there are approximately, 11.1 million homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the home is worth. The average negative equity is $65,000. The top hedge fund guru’s yearly income would cover the negative equity of 46,153 of those homes. And the irony is that Wall Street crash is directly responsible for the creation of the housing bubble and the crash of home value.

That’s enough to cover the per person average health care costs of 397,984 Americans. America has the most expensive health care system in the world at a per capita cost of $7,538. Yet one hedge fund manager makes enough to cover the health care costs of nearly four hundred thousand Americans.How can that be?

That’s more than the Gross Domestic Product of the 5 poorest African nations combined: The following countries have a combined GDP of less than $3 billion as of 2010; Liberia, Seychelles, Guinea-Bissau, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe. Together these five nations have a population of 6.3 million. One American equals 6.3 million Africans?

That’s enough to feed 62 million hungry school children for a year: Our obscene distribution of income becomes even more obscene when compared to world hunger. What a top hedge fund manager makes in one year could feed 61.9 million school children from all over the world for one year. What he makes in one HOUR is enough to provide a nutritious meal to 29,748 hungry kids every day for one YEAR.

>implying hedging is as easy as teaching

>implying people should make more than the value of services rendered

Money envy. Money envy everywhere.

I talked to a hedge fund manager once. Shit looks incredibly hard to do.

>Implying manipulating capital to cleverly appropriate labor is a service worth rewarding at all.

>Implying teaching (an actual job) is less valuable than the manipulation of other people’s labor.

Fuck, even if that shit was valuable, and was hard, is it really 85,000 times harder than teaching? does it produce 85,000 times more wealth for the rest of the world than teaching? I really fucking doubt it.