Obscene Salaries

[Bruce]

I was shocked to hear that Australia's Olympic chief got paid over $700,000 a year. From taxpayers and well-meaning donors who thought they were giving to athletes I guess.

 

To me , this is worse than anything any priests did. And yet governments on both sides were accomplices to this crime.

 

Words fail me... why do we not go and shout at our MP's?

 

 

[Geoff13]

I disagree, it is nowhere near as bad as what some priests did.

 

Another one last week admitted to 15 further accounts of child molestation bringing his total to over 70.

 

This animal ruined the lives of over 70 children.

 

As for the obscene Salaries, the reason you mentioned above is why I do not donate to charities unless I am certain that I know where the money is going.

 

Hence my involvement in the hay runs and my regular donations to UCARF. (Ulysses Club Arthritis Research Fund)

 

 

[Bruce]

Yes Geoff, in future I am going to need information like what the CEO's salary package is before I donate.

 

While I'm not defending the molesters, are you sure they really ruined lives?

 

I think that if lives were indeed ruined, our puritan society must carry some of the blame. For example, a raped woman in some societies has to live her life in shame, and to me this makes them all guilty in the ruination department.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

I've never agreed with the Olympics going Professional, let alone some of the stupid sports introduced.

 

And don't ever mention equestrian and Olympics in the same breath near me.

 

 

[old man emu]

And don't ever mention equestrian and Olympics in the same breath near me.

Bex,

 

You have to remember that the original games at Mount Olympus were contests of military skill. Horsemanship (or should that be horsepersonship?) is one of those military skills, as much as throwing the javelin, archery and wrestling. So I see no reason to avoid their modern equivalents in the Modern Olympics.

 

I've just got to figure out what ancient military skill is reflected in rhythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming.

 

OME

 

 

[Marty_d]

The Olympics is a huge waste of money anyway.

 

Countries spend billions they can't afford on hosting the games and never recoup the expense. Most of the hugely expensive infrastructure is left unused - or at the best extremely under-utilised - after the event.

 

My opinion? Hold it in Greece. The international community chips in to build world-class infrastructure that actually gets used every 4 years. Greece gets a much-needed shot in the arm for an event which they, after all, invented.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Bex,You have to remember that the original games at Mount Olympus were contests of military skill. Horsemanship (or should that be horsepersonship?) is one of those military skills,

Dressage?

 

Oh c'mon, you really think that the likes of 'Penny Windsor-Smythe' were handling 4 horse chariots in races back then?

 

They took their stations where the appointed umpires placed them by lot and ranged the cars. Then at the sound of the bronze trumpet, they started. All shouted to their horses, and shook the reins in their hands; the whole course was filled with the clatter of rattling chariots; and the dust flew upward. All of them in a confused throng kept plying their goads unsparingly, so that one of them might pass the wheel-hubs and the snorting steeds of his rivals; for both at their backs and at their rolling wheels the breath of the horses foamed and smattered. Orestes, driving close to the near edge of the turning-post, almost grazed it with his wheel each time and, giving rein to the trace-horse on the right, he checked the horse on the inner side. To this point, all the chariots still stood upright. But then the Aenian's hard-mouthed colts carried him out of control as they passed out of the turn from the sixth into the seventh lap and dashed their foreheads against the rig of the Barcaean. Next, as a result of this one mishap, the cars kept smashing and colliding with each other, and the whole race-ground of Crisa swelled with shipwrecked chariots.

 

Seeing this, the clever charioteer from Athens drew aside and paused, allowing the equestrian flood to pass in mid-crest. Orestes was driving last, keeping his horses behind, as his trust was in the race's end. But when he sees that the Athenian is alone left in, he sends a shrill cry ringing through the ears of his swift colts, and gives chase. Bringing yoke level with yoke the two of them raced, first one man, then the other, showing his head in front of the other's chariot. Up to now the ill-fated Orestes had driven upright safely through every circuit, upright in his upright car. But then he slackened his left rein while the horse was turning and unwittingly struck the edge of the pillar, breaking the axle-box in two. He spilled forward over the chariot-rail and was caught in the trim reins, and as he fell to the ground, his colts were scattered into the middle of the course.

 

Would I ever go to the Olymipics to see Chariot Races! Cutting heads off dummies, spearing dummies, cross country race, etc, all from horseback would work for me too!

 

But Dressage???

 

I've just got to figure out what ancient military skill is reflected in rhythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming.

I have advocated for years that trials riding should be included, a sport that takes more balance skillz, strength and strategy than most ...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3i9fSr9NgI

 

[Bruce]

How would you stop the Olympics going professional? It was happening by stealth, with some countries having athletes and coaches in the armed services organized to practice full time and in the US there were athletics college scholarships with the same effect.

 

But gosh we could stop money being wasted on overpaid administrators.

 

 

[storchy neil]

And don't ever mention equestrian and Olympics in the same breath near me.

 

you aint old enough for the seventies bexx:banned: neil

 

 

[kgwilson]

Getting back to the subject, I reckon one of the most obscene salaries was that of the CEO of Australia Post at around 5.6 million. The head of the US postal service gets around half a million with revenues hundreds of times higher and 60 times the staff numbers. What did Fahour achieve for all this before he bailed & you can bet with a pretty good golden parachute? He turned a 220 million loss into a profit of 36 million by slashing jobs but worse by raising the price of posting a letter by over 65% to a dollar while at the same time reducing the service where a letter now takes a week to get from one suburb to another. But there's more. You can pay an even higher price for express mail & get the same service you used to get when said letter cost 60 cents to send. I wonder what they'll pay his replacement?

 

 

[Bruce]

Where it is government, we should blame out local members regardless of what party they are in and whether they are in or out of power.

 

Sometimes I reckon the opposition ones have a lot of power because they have the possibility of making things bipartisan.

 

But on these obscene salaries, I don't know of a single person who thinks they are a good idea.

 

And I stick to my contention about these salaries being worse than molesting at least in some cases. When I was 15, I would have loved to be molested by a lovely blonde 40 year-old woman.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

But on these obscene salaries, I don't know of a single person who thinks they are a good idea.

 

And I stick to my contention about these salaries being worse than molesting at least in some cases. When I was 15, I would have loved to be molested by a lovely blonde 40 year-old woman.

A salary is a business decision based on the returns for the investment, I have no problem with them.

 

What I do have a problem with is when it's a Government institution in an era of high unemployment and that decision is still based on a profit schedule rather than real world needs that the Government is responsible for. This was the case for Australia Post.

 

I suggest the reading of "Lee Iococca, An Autobiography", interesting story.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

<snip> When I was 15, I would have loved to be molested by a lovely blonde 40 year-old woman.

I would still love to be molested by a 40 year old blonde woman - and I am a "little" more than 15 ;-)

 

Part of the problem; public and private, is that it has been an old boys club and who in that club wants to bit the hand the feeds you. If a senior fund portfolio manager stated to criticise and question the salary of a CEO of a company that is an average performing investment, then they would be implicitly criticising their investment strategy, and that would not do.

 

If a government mandarin was appointed who was hopeless and was called to account, the higher mandarins or pollies who employed that mandarin would have their judgement called into account. And so on. The fact that the press get a little more vigilant about these has started to call the whole thinginto question, and active direct investors started to criticise means that at least the problem is getting some air time.

 

As to them being accountable - pah! Take Aussie Post - gets 5.6m year, probably structured to be tax-efficient (options, deferrals, etc). Forget the fact he may have got a golden handshake/parachute, if he took his whole salary in cash, then that would be c. £2m (I don't know Aussie tax rates, but this should be a conservative guesstimate). After a couple of years, he has a nest egg many of us would dream of. So, even if he is held accountable by being let go without a chute, well, so what?

 

They should be required to structure salaries to allow a reasonable retainer to keep them comfy (say £500K/year) and then on hitting targets in a sustainable way, it releases appropriate compensation.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

The salary and retirement benefits of decision-makers should depend on the long-term success of their work.

 

It shouldn't be too hard to structure a reward system for our politicians, business leaders and bureaucrats akin to the royalties paid to creative people such as writers, musicians and movie-makers.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Hear, Hear!

 

Problem is getting the pollies to vote favourably for it..

 

 

[bexrbetter]

If a government mandarin was appointed

Well they own enough land now, so I suppose we should appoint a "Chinese" into Government as well .....

 

 

[Yenn]

The Olympics is just a big scandal. Coates has been there 27 years, through all therecently uncovered rorts. he did nothing, couldn't rock the boat.

 

It is not only the Olympics, but just about any large company. The CEO gets a vast amount of pay, then short term and long term inducements to do his job properly.

 

Santos for example the CEO can triple his salary, which is over a million, by achieving better than the 75th percentile. Shareholders get to vote on that, but it is always stated that the board does not have to do what the shareholders vote.

 

There are many people now who get paid. I won't say earn>. more in a year than i did in a working lifetime, and i was not a really lowly paid worker. I used to boast that i was the highest paid worker in NSW when the boss brought my pay packet up to the top of the chimney I was building.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

The Olympics is just a big scandal. Coates has been there 27 years,

I didn't know that, not that I wanted to care, but it seems to marry with the time period that our Olympic achievements have been going downwards doesn't it?

 

 

[storchy neil]

I used to boast that i was the highest paid worker in NSW when the boss brought my pay packet up to the top of the chimney I was building.

 

did the chimney draw neil

 

 

[bexrbetter]

I used to boast that i was the highest paid worker in NSW when the boss brought my pay packet up to the top of the chimney I was building.did the chimney draw neil

Muswellbrook?

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Yes Geoff, in future I am going to need information like what the CEO's salary package is before I donate.While I'm not defending the molesters, are you sure they really ruined lives?

 

I think that if lives were indeed ruined, our puritan society must carry some of the blame. For example, a raped woman in some societies has to live her life in shame, and to me this makes them all guilty in the ruination department.

I stopped donations to the 'Save the Chidren' fund, which runs a televised show annually. When I discivered that the CEO was on over £240,000, and up to SIXTY underling 'adminstrators' were being paid more than £65K per annum also, I decided that it was a scam. Along with loads of others.

 

The last one I stopped was the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. The UK lifeboats have a terrific historical record for the rescue of mariners and it is a shame that it also has far too many people skimming off the top. I have suggested to friends that the best way to continue helping the RNLI would be to privately 'Crowdfund' a new Lifeboat, and present it to a station which doesn't have one, or needs an update. That way the 'Snouts in the trough' could not divert any funds to themselves.

 

No cynicism intended here, but it is fairly evident on closer examination that most charities nowadays are simply money making scams, you have to make certain what your donations are actually being used for and what percentage disappears down the money hole on 'Admin'. . .

 

Charities have been described as an 'Industry' here in the UK.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I used to also donate to the Save the Children fund and found out much the same. It reminded me of when I was a nipper and the telly ads of starving kinds from some far flung part of the world would come on. I asked my mum to phone in and donate the sum per week and he response was if they bring a few kids here (Aus), she'll take them in. Then she told me only a few cents in the dolla went to the kids - most to advertising (despite the ads being community announcements), some to investments and the rest to the pay of the charity workers.. And she was pretty well right.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I used to also donate to the Save the Children fund and found out much the same. It reminded me of when I was a nipper and the telly ads of starving kinds from some far flung part of the world would come on. I asked my mum to phone in and donate the sum per week and he response was if they bring a few kids here (Aus), she'll take them in. Then she told me only a few cents in the dolla went to the kids - most to advertising (despite the ads being community announcements), some to investments and the rest to the pay of the charity workers.. And she was pretty well right.

The amount these so called 'Charities' spend on TV airtime, using well lknown 'Celebrities'. . .some of whom donate their time free of charge to make these 'Heartrending' ads, must be horrendous, and, forgive me for being cynical, I'll wager that they do not get a discount from the TV companies over the top of all those consistent 'Bookies' ads about conning any kid with a mobile phone to get on to their online gambling sites, get a ten quid free spin and then lose all their wages to some cnut who lives on a 50 million dollar yacht in the caribbean, laughing his fecking bollox off.

 

 

[Yenn]

My bushwalking club was offered I think it was 10% of the take if we would collect for one of the charities. I can't guarantee to remember which one it was, so no names, no pack drill. We refused to take them up on the offer. We collected several times for the Salvos and I believe they uas what they get responsibly.

 

The chimney was mot Muswelbrook, but ETRS at Port Kemble and it did draw well. I saw a video of it being knocked down about a year or so ago. A sad day for me.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I get lots of phone calls from charities. After all the nice words about what a great supporter I've been in the past etc., the bottom line is they want money. The caller gets upset when I try to bypass them by offering to send money direct to their website.

 

I presume each caller is on a bonus system and gets a cut of my donation.