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This is not a new thought by any stretch of the imagination. Those that get paid the most are, generally, those that provide way less value to everyday hard working people than the value provided by actual everyday hard working people.

Feudal, maybe?
Top heavy, by a long shot.

Sports people, meh
Actors, meh
CEOs, meh
Politicians, mostly meh
Finance dealers, absolutely meh
Corporate Lawyers, fucking meh to the max

Top health practitioners are paid a lot and I can go with that.

Here's a list Google spat out (US dollars)
  • Law Firm Partner (Elite International / Corporate): $350,000 – $2,000,000+
  • CEO / Managing Director: $250,000 – $1,000,000+ base
  • Investment Banker / Managing Director: $250,000 – $800,000+
  • ⚕️ Neurosurgeon: $450,000 – $750,000+
  • ⚕️ Cardiothoracic Surgeon: $400,000 – $680,000+
  • Quantitative Systematic Trader: $200,000 – $600,000+
  • Chief Financial Officer: $220,000 – $600,000+
  • ⚕️ Orthopedic Surgeon: $380,000 – $600,000+
  • ⚕️ Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon: $375,000 – $550,000+
  • Chief Operating Officer: $200,000 – $500,000
  • ⚕️ Cardiologist: $320,000 – $500,000
  • Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyer: $170,000 – $400,000
  • ⚕️ Radiologist: $300,000 – $460,000
  • ⚕️ Anesthesiologist: $350,000 – $450,000
  • Portfolio / Asset Manager: $180,000 – $450,000
  • ⚕️ Urologist: $300,000 – $450,000
  • Chief Information / Technology Office: $190,000 – $450,000
  • ⚕️ Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon: $290,000 – $430,000
  • ⚕️ Gynaecologist / Obstetrician: $280,000 – $410,000
  • ⚕️ Dermatologist: $230,000 – $400,000
  • ⚕️ Ophthalmologist: $240,000 – $390,000
  • ⚕️ Orthodontist: $260,000 – $380,000
  • Chief Information Security Officer: $180,000 – $360,000
  • ⚕️ Emergency Medicine Physician: $230,000 – $360,000
  • ⚕️ Psychiatrist: $240,000 – $350,000
  • Corporate Vice President: $180,000 – $350,000
  • AI / Machine Learning Architect: $190,000 – $350,000
  • Senior Judge / Magistrate: $160,000 – $350,000
  • Project Director (Resources & Engineering): $150,000 – $320,000
  • ⚕️ Periodontist: $210,000 – $310,000
  • Chief Marketing Officer: $145,000 – $300,000
  • Quantitative Analyst: $150,000 – $300,000
  • Petroleum Engineer: $160,000 – $280,000
  • Mining Manager / Site Superintendent: $150,000 – $280,000
  • ⚕️ General Dentist: $180,000 – $270,000
  • Cloud Solution Architect: $160,000 – $260,000
  • Financial Investment Advisor / Manager: $130,000 – $260,000
  • Software Engineering Manager / Director: $145,000 – $250,000
  • Human Resources Director / VP: $140,000 – $250,000
  • ⚕️ Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA): $180,000 – $250,000
  • ⚕️ Pediatrician: $170,000 – $250,000
  • Cyber Security Architect / Director: $150,000 – $245,000
  • ⚕️ General Practitioner / Family Physician: $160,000 – $240,000
  • Data Architect: $145,000 – $240,000
  • Enterprise Architecture Manager: $150,000 – $230,000
  • Aerospace Engineer / Director: $130,000 – $220,000
  • Enterprise Systems Architect: $140,000 – $210,000
  • Site Reliability Engineer: $135,000 – $200,000
  • ⚕️ Optometrist: $130,000 – $175,000
  • Senior Clinical Pharmacist: $125,000 – $160,000
Farmers, musicians, and sportspeople operate on an "extreme outlier" economic structure. Unlike structured corporate or medical careers with reliable, high baseline salaries, these fields have low or modest average wages, but their elite performers earn more than almost anyone else on earth.

[Note: the above list is likely to be based on US data where they have a private health system and,as we know, it gouges the patients big time ... maybe that's why there are so many senior medical roles, love to hear from someone who can shed light on that]

And then there's these people (again, in US dollars):
  • Elon Musk
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla
    • Annual Earnings: ~$132.3 Billion to $158.3 Billion (Driven by historic performance-based stock option unlocks).
  • Dylan Field
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder of Figma
    • Annual Earnings: ~$864 Million.
  • Shankh Mitra
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Welltower
    • Annual Earnings: ~$821 Million (Reflecting massive long-term equity structures).
  • Kasra Nejatian
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Opendoor
    • Annual Earnings: ~$741 Million.
  • Robert Scaringe
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rivian Automotive
    • Annual Earnings: ~$402 Million.
  • Cristiano Ronaldo
    • Job Title: Professional Athlete (Forward, Al Nassr FC)
    • Annual Earnings: $300 Million (Combining $235M playing contract + $65M endorsements).
  • Niraj Shah
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wayfair
    • Annual Earnings: ~$280.8 Million.
  • Manmeet Soni
    • Job Title: Chief Operating Officer (COO) & Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Summit Therapeutics
    • Annual Earnings: ~$249.1 Million.
  • George Kurtz
    • Job Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CrowdStrike
    • Annual Earnings: ~$247.5 Million.
  • Mahkam Zanganeh
    • Job Title: Co-Chief Executive Officer (Co-CEO) & President of Summit Therapeutics
    • Annual Earnings: ~$246 Million.
This is their income (and we all know this isn't really just it, they use money to make money to make more money), imagine what more good they could do over and above what they are already doing (for some that's starting from zero).


To go back to title of this post, Mike Tyson hit people, he did it well but it was never worth $400 million to $430 million to the human race, never. Look, I think Ronnie O'Sullivan is a genius around the snooker table, absolutely the best at hitting small coloured balls into holes, but £15 million worth of humanity value, nope.



Further reading:
Oh, and this all assumes you're a white male, not one of those, it's even worse:

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