From the New York Times this article, Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices, caught my attention. It talks about a two-tier income stratum within professional jobs. Rather than earning the typical six-figure income under $400,000 there are people making millions due to:
. . . people [who] latched onto opportunities within their fields that offered significantly higher incomes [or] have moved to different, higher-paying fields — from academia to Wall Street, for example — and a growing number of entrepreneurs have seen windfalls tied largely to expanding financial markets, which draw on capital from around the world…Three decades ago, compensation among occupations differed far less than it does today.
Among these high income earners you can find:
- Partners in Hedge funds and private equity firms
- Real estate developers
- Lawyers
- Dot-com entrepreneurs
- Scientists/entrepreneurs who sell their discoveries
- Owners of ordinary businesses who sell them
- CEOs
- Wall Street investment bankers
- Sports stars and celebrities
and the children of the super-rich
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
If true, this article would seem to put paid to the claim, promulgated endlessly by the Times and their fellow travelers on the left, that the changes in wealth distribution are the fault of Bush and the Republicans. That is unless the next article shows definitively that mind rays from Karl Rove are causing normal democrats from NY ( where many of the occupations cited are concentrated)to take up fields in which they earn much higher returns for their labor. It’s odd that NY which is such a center of left liberalism chooses to allow the Yankees to contribute so mightily to the misallocation of wealth by paying it’s players such “obscene” amounts solely in pursuit of winning. To set a real example the doyens of Park Avenue should demand those Yanks quit leading the pack into excess.
This is a great articles. I love stuff like this.
I would have to say sport stars make the most money. But only if they are a star – not average.
Thanks.