Google Execs Happy With $1 Salaries

DarkClown writes "ZDNet is on the one hand reporting that Google execs will keep their $1 salaries again this year, and on the other hand is reporting that the executives cashed in more than $160 million worth of stock last month." From the stock article: "Since the search giant went public in August 2004, Brin has sold about 6.5 million shares at a market value of $1.68 billion. Page has sold about 5.8 million shares at a market value of $1.4 billion, according to calculations from Thomson Financial. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who was brought in to run the company before it went public, has sold more than 2.1 million shares, worth more than $502 million." They could be getting a multi-million dollar salary *and* the stock money. Good faith efforts go a long way in my book.

Comments

Re:Disgusting

[Kiryat Malachi]

Eric Schmidt was smart enough to say "Yes, I will be Google's CEO."

That's what he's done to earn $502M.

Re:Rewarding Effort

[ffsnjb]

You do realize that with a $1.4B income at 15% tax, $210 million went to the government. In one year. I highly doubt anyone bitching about having to pay for their future use of SS/Medicaid at your stated 40% tax bracket will ever come close to paying a thousandth of that, over their entire lifetime. If you want to talk about fairness, there should be a limit on the taxes an individual has to pay over their lifetime.

Any billionaire would be out of their mind to even waste their time with SS/Medicaid; therefore, why should they bother to pay in? SS/Medicaid is an insurance policy for those too incompetent, or ignorant, to do better for themselves.

Your argument reminds me of an "In Soviet Russia..." joke. Sadly, you weren't joking.

Re:Rewarding Effort

[LupusUF]

You forget, you only collect SS if you put money into it (excepting disability and such). That piece of paper that you get every year letting you know how much you have put in, and how many points you have is sent out for a reason. In their case, if they don't put the money in the SS, then they won't get it when they retire. Of course they won't need it, but why should they pay into a system that they won't be using?

As for capital gains rates...the rate only applies to long term investment. If you are a day trader, you still pay the normal income tax rate. You only get the 15% rate on stocks that you sell if you held them for over a year. This rewards long term investors. This makes logical sense, because these are the people who are taking the risks to fund our economy.

As for dividends, they were already taxed once. Dividends are simply a way that a company gives cash that they earned but will not be using to expand back to the shareholders (who put money into the company). This dividend money was ALREADY taxed once when the company earned the money. Not to mention that the money that made up the shareholder's original investment was taxed at the time that the individual shareholder earned it.

Lowering capital gains taxes is not about letting the rich screw the poor, it is about lowering the amount of double taxation.