Hedge Funder John Paulson Earns More Hourly

[sasha031]

Than Most Americans Do In A Lifetime And Pays A Lower Tax Rate
As ThinkProgress has previously noted, necessary services and public investments in Main Street America are being gutted as some of the wealthiest Americans are getting away with paying less in taxes than they have in a generation.

Progressive activist and former Texas agricultural commissioner Jim Hightower notes one particularly egregious exammple of this unfair economic arrangement: the case of hedge fund billionaire John Paulson. Hightower writes that an American who earned $50,000 a year for 47 years would earn $2.4 million, which would be a healthy sum. Yet Paulson earns that much in an hour:

If your job paid $50,000 a year and you stayed at it for 47 years, your tally for a lifetime of work would be $2.4 million. Not bad — but hedge fund hustler John Paulson pulled down that much last year.

Most of us would consider an annual income of $2.4 million to be a windfall, but it didn’t take Paulson a full 12 months of work to pocket his windfall — or one month, a week, or even a day. That’s how much he made an hour. Yes, Paulson could’ve worked one single hour in 2010 and hauled off a paycheck equal to what a typical household gets for a lifetime of work.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/13/hedge-funder-john-paulson/

[aquart]

1. This man is insufficiently taxed.

[dkf]

2. Why can't we just get on his case for paying the wrong rate on taxes instead of getting on him

For making money in the stock market. That is the vehicle we all depend on to retire. Funny how we cry when our public pensions are underfunded but we scream at John Paulson for making money.

[The Magistrate]

4. That is Silly, Ma'am

The proportion of money a few individuals collect make it impossible for a great many other individuals to accumulate much of anything for themselves.

The largest 'market' is that in money, wealth, itself, and a 'corner' has been established in it, to the detriment of most people.

[xchrom]

3. Tax the rich, end coporate welfare, cut DoD & the MIC.

And renogotiate our trade agreements.

[Overseas]

5. K&R!

[Duppers]

6. I love the graph too

K & R

I pointed this out the other day:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4844696#4845568



"And as any state attorney general can tell you, a good number of them (hedge funders) cheat by betting with illegal insider tips, front-running trades, sneaking in trades after markets close and so on. The entire industry is barely regulated as it plays with a bankroll of $2.2 trillion that comes mostly from enormously rich investors.

You can bet the next crisis will bubble out of this vast and murky casino."