New York City has some of the most expensive real estate in the country, which is absolutely stupid because on the island of Manhattan, there is--virtually--no space to expand, except up. Most of the people who work in Manhattan live off the island because they can't afford to live there, and the people who live there have enough money to buy and sell most small countries, so the cost of living there has no effect on them. Yes, we're talking about people like movie stars and Donald Trump here.
California is just as bad, if not worse, because it's THE best example of what I call "The Artificial Economy", which means EVERYTHING is overpriced because there are people there who CAN afford to pay too much for everything because they make too much money to start with. So much money is being paid to these people that there's not enough left to pay "regular people" a decent salary.The "Golden State", now highly tarnished, has the highest concentration of over-salaried company CEO's, movie and TV stars, and professional athletes in the world. Stop and think about this: while you're working your fingers to the bone to scratch out a living and keep a home for your family, there are people in Hollywood who get paid $20 million for work that takes only a couple of months. That work? Pretending to be someone else.
That's right--movie actors. Let's break it down this way: If an actor is paid $15 million per film (this is close to the "average" big star salary today), and that film takes 3 months to shoot, it's safe to assume that he doesn't work every hour of every day. Giving the average of 12 hours a day (very generous according to Mohawk Show sources), even if the person works 7 days a week, that comes out to 1,080 hours. If you split that $15 million by those hours, it means that this actor makes $13,889 PER HOUR. If the average American was paid on that scale, he could live like a king if he only worked one week a year.
Company CEO's are known to make millions a year in salaries alone, on top of stock options and bonuses. We're not going to name names here, but rather give you a general example. One oil company executive in 2006 was paid more than the combined income of EVERYONE in a large African nation. Some athletes get paid salaries that come out to $35,000 per game or more.
Meanwhile, in places like California and the New York City area, the average worker (that's you and me) has to spend up to 60 percent of his take home pay on housing and somehow juggle the rest to pay for utilities, food, and gas to get to work and back. If there's anything left, maybe he'll buy some clothes and shoes.
Then there's the great American myth: anyone can be whatever they want to in this country. Really? I have over 20 years of management experience and am being turned down repeatedly because I don't have a college degree and don't speak Spanish proficiently. I thought this was the United States of AMERICA, not Mexico. I find that even "manager trainees" must have a 4-year college degree and 5 years of previous experience. This is absolute B.S. and needs to be changed NOW!!!
