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Major political scandal underway in France | 76 comments (76 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (3.00 / 2)
What's your definition of mega-rich?

Swedish parliamentarians earn €4000 per month and ministers earn €8000. At least the minister's pay is mega-rich in my book.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 10:50:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (4.00 / 2)
It used to be €7800 euros for ministers, but a budgetary law in 2002 (a law that was meant to limit budgetary wastes of money) has made that go up to €13300.

Let me just translate that into, oh, I see, over one million French francs per year, ok yep, you're right, they're mega-rich.

by Alex in Toulouse on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 11:31:29 AM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 1)
Let's limit budgetary waste by doubling ministers' salaries.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 11:34:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (4.00 / 2)
It's hard to decide what salary to give them as French right-wing politicians are priceless.
by Alex in Toulouse on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 11:40:46 AM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
lol!!
by Alexandra in WMass (alexandra_wmass[a|t]yahoo[d|o|t]fr) on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 12:02:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
"Why let our budgetary money go to waste? Let's give it to our beloved ministers"
by Alex in Toulouse on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 11:42:20 AM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 1)
Oh and incidentally it's one of the first laws passed by the right-wing government that was elected in 2002.
by Alex in Toulouse on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 11:43:02 AM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
Swedish parliamentarians earn €4000 per month and ministers earn €8000. At least the minister's pay is mega-rich in my book.

You're kidding, right? A family of four earning 8,000 Euros per month, pre tax, is right on the borderline of qualifying for apartments specially reserved for moderate income families here in NYC or its inner suburbs, i.e at roughly 120% of the median.  Housing and taxes are that much lower low in Sweden?

by MarekNYC on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 03:34:55 PM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
You're kidding, right? The median household income in NYC (1999) was under $40,000 (actually %3191 per month). (source)

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 03:53:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
No, I am not kidding. Note that I was speaking of a family of four, not a 'household' and today, not 1999. I can't find current figures broken down by family size for the city, but in 2004, in 2004 dollars, median family of four income in New York state was $67,564, in New Jersey it was $88,401, in Connecticut $88,276. census figures  So yes, I was off - 8,000 Euros is between a 1.3 and 1.9 median family of four income in the New York area, though searching more shows that in some cases families with up to 150% of local median size adjusted household income qualify for 'moderate income' status housing.  In any case I stand by the statement that it is absurd to consider 8,000 euros a month to be 'mega rich'. It's not even plain 'rich' around here, just standard upper middle class, which is nice but not quite the same thing.
by MarekNYC on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 04:31:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
I wonder what the PPP conversion would be between Stockholm and NYC.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 04:39:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
What? €8000 per month is great pay even if it was the combined pay for the household. €8000 per month is €96.000 per year, more than $100.000 per year for a single person! The Swedish GDP per capita is about $25.000-30.000 so a minister makes about four times as much as the average worker. Is that great pay or what!

And remember the ministers spouse will also have a wage to add to the household income. But even if the spouse is unemployed it equals two working parents earning €4000 each, two great wages in their own right.

I don't know what rents are in NYC, but if you earn more than about €3000 your income tax is about 50 % in Sweden.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 07:02:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
a minister makes about four times as much as the average worker. Is that great pay or what!

If I am not mistaken, Sweden's top/bottom quintile ratio is around 4, one of the lowest in the developed world. Ministers getting four times average wage will earn shrugs elsewhere.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 07:12:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
And here I am, the most right-wing person on the entire ET, sounding like a damn commie. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Sat Apr 29th, 2006 at 09:55:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
BTW, are travel expenses part of the €8000?

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Fri Apr 28th, 2006 at 07:13:21 PM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
No, the state pays that. Our minister of sports used the government jet to go some place and watch football. By the way, the man (Bosse Ringholm) is retarded. He was named minister of Finance in spite of failing his high school math.

Sweden has the worst educated government in the world.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Sat Apr 29th, 2006 at 09:57:34 AM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
I might sound like a free market prophet, but this and the 4000-8000 E/month salary might be related. About how big is the revenue (salary + bonuses) in the upper management of a big company? Or in a consultancy firm?
by Deni on Sat Apr 29th, 2006 at 12:05:42 PM EST
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Re: Major political scandal underway in France (none / 0)
This just shows how salaries have been skewed.

In the UK I'd consider middle class starts at around £30k/year, upper middle at around £80-£100k/year, and rich at £1M/year. MPs here get paid £50k (it may have gone up since the last time I looked) plus some expenses.

Very rich would be anyone worth over a billion, because that's the level at which you can buy absolutely anything for your own personal use.

But - these people amuse themselves by buying and selling companies, not everyday things. The difference between one billion and ten billion is the difference between a small and a medium sized corporation.

At that level it probably still rankles that no matter how rich someone is, they still can't afford to buy Microsoft, Exxon or Google in their entirety.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Apr 29th, 2006 at 06:46:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Major political scandal underway in France | 76 comments (76 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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