“Pay for Performance” 0
On the other side of the Big Pond (for perspective, one pound UK = a little less than one and a half dollars US):
Most of the focus last night was on Peter Cummings, the executive responsible for the HBOS division that caused huge losses. He is thought to have received one year’s salary and benefits of £800,000 when he left the bank last month and started receiving his £350,000-a-year pension at the age of 53. Executives close to 55 are entitled to have their pensions topped up, which suggests that Cummings’s £5.9m pension pot will have been enhanced.
The Booman reminds us of what tax rates used to be.
Note that he is not recommending returning to Eisenhower-era marginal tax rates; he is simply giving his other comments some perspective.
Nevertheless, this passage–almost an aside in the context of his larger article–illustrates why Republican Economic Theory (AKA the Laughable Curve), the theory that the cure-all for society’s ills is to make the rich richer, fails. The theory denies human nature.
The money doesn’t trickle down; it trickles out:
