Raw Story spotted this list of famous New Yorkers’ salaries in the latest issue of New York Magazine.
“Money [getting paid fairly] is a sign of respect,” said Jean Enerson, a female TV news anchor in Seattle, who began in the early 1970s and who had to fight for equal pay. Do you agree?
MEDIA:
Anderson Cooper: $2 million
Brian Williams: $4 million
Roger Ailes, Fox Chairman: $7.1 million
David Letterman: $31 million
Jon Stewart: $1.5 million
Arthur Sulzberger, Publisher, New York Times: $1.92 million
Bill Keller, editor, New York Times: $650,000
Thomas Friedman, New York Times: $300,000
Will Shortz, Times Crossword: $90,000
Maria Schneider, the Onion: $17,500
David Remnick, editor, The New Yorker: $1 million
Anna Wintour, editor, Vogue: $2 millionBIG TIME:
Barry Diller, CEO, USA: $156 million
Sumner Redstone, Viacom: $56 million
Martha Stewart: $13.5 million
BELOW, a poll — where do you stack up?
Stack up? I’m not even on the radar screen. In fact, I’m so far from the radar screen, I’m actually in a black hole somewhere.
Bottom line: those people make too damn much money. I mean, really…geez.
I just gave myself Barry Diller’s salary! 🙂
I’ll split it with you, Catnip!
Redistribute the wealth, I mean. I got a headache trying to figure out how many places to move the decimal point on the lowest income to arrive at mine.
Ah well, at least there’s a computer, and I am most definitely well-fed. How much caviar can one stand, anyway?
We didn’t have much money when I was growing up but my mom would indulge in caviar every now and then. Ewwww!!
I’ll take that there caviar offa your paws, catnip — you can have my poutine. 🙂
(And before anyone starts busting my ass for playing at classy with the caviar thing, keep in mind, I’ll be having it on Safeway club crackers and washing it down with beer. And no, I’m not related to Britney Spears, why do you ask?)
I’d take poutine over caviar any day!
I don’t know who Barry Diller is. I’ll look it up. But, if he makes more than I do now (which most people and their dog do), I’ll split whatever his salary is with you. 🙂
Barry Diller, son of Phyllis, comedian, big success story there.
Where are the real people?
A couple of bucks and a stack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Same here, ‘ceptin’ I prefer peanut butter and nutella…
seriously, I really don’t like these kinds of measuements, though I know this one’s for fun mostly. It reminds me of some of the “how much education do you have” threads I’ve seen at dkos. Who gives a flying……waffle? Really.
If you want to know what I’m worth, I’ll have to let you ask my children and my wife what my value is.
There are no more real people. Bush swallowed them up. Welcome to Bizzaroland.
I thought that he only ate newborns.
You folks are just too funny…thanks for the laugh. I was in outrage mode AGAIN after reading Spieder’s frontpager on the Toxic Soup in NO and the impact it will have and the epa PLAYING IT SO LOW KEY. Sorry for shouting I just cannot help myself sometimes.
Jon Stewart is worth every penny, Barry Diller oughta be in jail for crimes agains humanity! Disgusting!
is paid 44 times as much as Will Shortz? At least Shortz makes a valuable contribution to the intellectual health of his audience.
That really surprised me too. How many people buy the NYT to do the crossword puzzle? Or buy other newspapers that carry the puzzle? (I do — I used to buy the Seattle PI on Saturdays just because they carried the maddeningly difficult Sat. NYT puzzle.
I hope that Will makes out handsomely from his puzzle book sales, and from his celebrity appearances at various puzzle tournaments.
Does NPR pay him to appear on Sunday mornings? They must …
that I’ll go out of my way to listen to is the “Puzzle Master” spot on Sunday mornings.
Anderson Cooper be worth more than Jon Stewart?!
Well, actually, Anderson Cooper — imho — earned his salary with his exceptional coverage for the past three weeks in Louisiana. He was brutally honest, he was infuriated with FEMA and Bush, he and his crew found great stories.
My daughter, a night owl, remembers Cooper well from his days on the overnight ABC news show. She says he was very funny on that show, and he had a big fan following.
I agree. I couldn’t wait to see him on CNN International while I was in China.
Does anyone remember when Anderson Cooper hosted the reality game show “The Mole?” I have that right don’t I? I really liked the show – it was a fun take on an overdone genre. Although I NEVER figured out who the mole was.
I do.
Heck, I was surprised to see him on CNN later on.
If I ever had reservations about AC, they went comletely positive with his coverage of Katrina. If Brian Williams is getting that much money, CNN really needs to match AC’s.
He should be sending his check to Maria over at the Onion.
Really?! Truly? Or are you being snarky? Can you provide a link? I mean, he doesn’t look anything like her or any of her husbands…
no link, but it’s true
http://www.nndb.com/people/971/000022905/
I am astounded. My appreciation of Anderson has gone up a notch, I must say. Coming from such a flakey, unstable family background and yet so ultra-priviledged. No wonder he freaked out when confronted with the horror of New Orleans. Hey, and now I understand where he got his fashion-sense…
He has been her son since his birth.
Nice :o)
If Anderson Cooper leaves New York at 8:30 on a plane heading south, and Martha Stewart leaves prison at 6:00 a.m. on a plane heading east, while Barry Diller and Sumner Redstone each cross the international date line in private jets at 5:00 p.m., what time does Jon Stewart come on?
Could you explain how you link what is somebody worth with what he/she earns? It’s sooooo american!
Anyway, $90 000, what does that make in euros?
me crazy is “What do you do?”. As though your means of putting bread on the table defines you as a person.
$90,000 = 74,160.26 EUR
We are SO nailed! It IS American….
I have certain relatives who were far nicer and more interested in me when I worked at Microsoft than my current state of disability. (I recently told one that I was sorry that I had no economic worth. It was sort of a jab, although I said it softly. It was also the god’s honest truth. There was no reply. It is so. It is plain fact. And that’s all there is to it.)
People from other places comment on this quite a bit.
Strike up a conversation with a person from almost anywhere, and the first thing they will tell you is about their family, their town, their country.
Strike up a conversation with an American, and the first thing they will tell you is what they do for a living.
It’s about E75,000 at today’s exchange rate.
I take it that the person who commented that “money is anout respect” has never read John Rawls or heard of the “difference principle”: economic inequalities can only be justified to the extent that and in proportion as they contribute to the well-being of the most disadvanteged, is a very simlified form of it.
Fundamentals of moral philosophy!!
That is true. But she was thinking of how she had to fight to get the same pay as other TV news reporters/anchors who did the same work as she did, but for which she was paid less. (After all, she did have a husband :):))
Ooops, sorry about that!! I just read the phrase “money is about respect” and then looked at the long list of people who obviously haven’t earned the amount of respect that their salaries indicated and though she was trying to morally justify all of that.
I’m not familiar with the person and didn’t realize she was referring to equality of pat for women as a question of respect, but I thought, given the context, that she was just talking about the billoionaires in that list.
In short, never mind.
We are all worth more than money can buy.
Anderson Cooper makes 2 million?!?! Personally I can do without his hardnose Beniffer reports. Seriously, does he report anything of value?
You must not have watched him much … he strives hard to do serious television news. And he has been extraordinary on CNN these last three weeks … just visit CNN.com and read some of his transcripts. (I quoted from one on Saturday in a story here.)
That Bennifer stuff. Sadly, they are forced to do that. Even Keith Olbermann has to do it because, as he’s fond of saying, “My producers make me.”
(Actually, I sort of like the Brad and Angelina stories because those are two people who work very hard for international human rights and to end poverty.)
Not much in terms of dollars and…but rich in many other ways.
Somewhere along the way, ethics, compassion, empathy, honor, and respect for others has been displaced by avarice and hubris.
He who dies with the most toys wins
Peace
I’m a student… I think that means I’m measured in potential rather than dollars, which makes me priceless.
😀
We have a secret Social Darwinism operating in this country, and for the sake of those of you who are young, I hope it changes soon. Those of us who aren’t that young can only hope for luck.
Because these days being a millionaire means you can afford the best available medical care, for awhile. No one else can.
Millionaires can choose where they live and can afford housing there. No one else can.
Millionaires can read Barbara Erenrich’s new book–in which she sets out to write about the experience of a white collar job, but never gets hired for one—and be amused but detached. No one else can.
Net Worth, well if I sold all my possessions at a garage sale, maybe $300.00 at best. I live a very minimal life now….Have had the high, networth and the low net worth and much prefer this one, which would be the low. The highs never made me happy, but the lows have, interesting, hmmmmm.
I should think I hold the record as the lowest nw, any challengers. <smile>
Yes, Diane,
I think I’m on the absolute bottom scale right now (about $1200 per month for me and my husband. And that’s living in Santa Barbara. The thing is I don’t feel poor at all, as a matter of fact I enjoy the fact that I’m not dependent on material comforts, but life itself. I work with injured wildlife (birds of prey), and direct a Santa Barbara Audubon Society Education program.
My salary completely depends on grants, so sometimes I make as much as $2,000 per month, but for the last year I’ve lived on the $1200 figure. Right now three grant proposals are out, so I’m hopeful one or two of them will come through for next year’s salary.
Folks, I’m proud I’m able to live my life the way I want it, and do the work I love. I don’t need much, and I know that Native Americans could travel with a basket and a knive, and travel about with nothing more.
Of course that’s not possible right now, but heck, I sure like the idea of fewer things, clocked schedules, so that life itself rather than worry, is at the top of my agenda. It allows for reflection, philosophysing, reading Kos and Booman Tribune, and enjoying nature.
It was a conscious choice on my part. Therefore I don’t feel like a victim at all, but rather like a winner over the material values this country has become enslaved to.
I get individual help from people who bring in the injured hawks, owls and falcons we care for. They WANT to assist, and, although we never know from week to week what next week will bring us, we love our work, and somehow we’ve managed this way for a long time (15 years).
Pretty crazy, isn’t it?
I have to say that the notion of grading people’s remarks has no worth. For one thing, it is so Kossian. For another, it just another way to flame people. I think this site would move in the right direction by dumping this feature. (Guess this remark will get a bunch of “one” ratings.)
As for pay, none of your business 🙂
BWAHAHAH!
But seriously, I use 4’s just to tell someone I thought they made an especially good point, or said something funny, instead of cluttering up the thread with a little one line message saying ‘Good work’ or ‘Ha!’.
Hi, Numediaman, welcome to the site, I see you are new here. We have talked about the ratings many times on this site and a lot of us don’t like them, so we just use the 4’s. We are more into postive than negative.
BTW come over to the froggy bottom cafe (the daily diary where we just chat) and say hi, and tell us about yourself, if you are of a mind to.
I would be surprised if you got even 1, 1….and let us know if you do….
My taxable income falls just a hair under 30K. I usually consider my life savings to be a nickel at any given point. So if I ever bet my life savings… 🙂
Lemme see- since I am not ‘stacked’ at all I would fall in there with Twiggy or Kate Moss. 😛
Is that before or after paying taxes?
Is that before or after paying for health care?
Is that before or after paying for college?
Is that before or after paying for your daily commute?
Any question now why these folks tend to be so out of touch with reality? Real life looks different from the rear window of a Lincoln Town Car.
Money wise? About negative $150K.
In every other way?
Priceless.
And so are ya’ll.
I finally began to agree with those who argued in the 1970s that the income tax was really too high on the highest income earners. Back then, the highest tax bracket was around 90% and that did seem too high. “Why,” my right-leaning friends would argue, “should the government get that much of someone’s money? If the government is gonna take that much, why would anyone bother to work that hard?” And I couldn’t come up with a reasonable argument for it, so I began to agree.
Of course, now, that upper rate has fallen dramatically and, ironically, I now know the argument I was searching for back then. No one should make salaries that high. No one contributes that much to justify taking that much. And so, a 90% tax bracket above, say, $500,000 is not only just but fair. Companies should be discouraged from paying those kinds of salaries and people should be discouraged from wanting them.
And its just the dumbest right wing “logic” too…
“why would they work so hard…”
A: No one earning 1 million+ is working hard. They may have special knowledge, or simply special relationships. They may “earn” it. But they sure as hell aren’t working hard for it. Amazingly, most of the folks who are working hard are earning closer to the poverty line. Its opportunity like education and training that let people work less hard and earn more.
B: These so-called “capitalists” are pathetic. Their betters certainly knew how to earn sky-high wealth capable of founding generations-long family fortunes, while paying such “ungodly” taxes. But the modern versions can’t manage to get rich without Uncle Sam giving them all kinds of tax breaks. Its like social advancement for the jet-set.
C: Name me a single person who’s turned down a raise on the basis of “heck, I’ll hardly make anything after taxes”. I can believe folks have turned down raises, but its ridiculous to think its ever because of taxes.
D: As the original diary indicates, salaries above $100K or so aren’t about the money. They’re about “respect”. They’re about ranking compared to peers (same job type or same social class) and to “others”. Even taxed (fairly), this competition for “respect” is going to be there. Only an idiot, a liar, or a Republican would claim that taxes would make a competitive person into a altruist completely unconcerned with comparisons to others.
Smoke and mirrors. Lies and deceit. Republican.