OPRAH'S EARNINGS IN 2008

I just saw where Oprah earned $275,000,000 in 2008. If that sounds like a lot of money, well, it is. Here's how it breakdowns.

She earned $753,424.66 every single day of the year. That's almost a million dollars A DAY. It's incomprehensible.

That equals to $31,392.69 an hour. Every hour of every day. Round the clock. And we talk about the auto unions wanting $30 an hour for their workers. They should take lessons from this woman.

It's also $523.23 a minute and $8.72 a second, year round, day in and day out, night and day. It took me almost 10 minutes to do the math and write this post. I'd have earned $5,232.12 if I'd been working on her pay scale. How do I get a job like that? How do you?

This is a woman that doesn't heal the sick, teach our children, build a product, or govern our country. These are the things that I think are important, and yet the earnings they generate pale in comparison to what she makes every year.

I think the country, and the world, has its priorities turned around. How about the rest of you?

BTW, in comparison, Bill Gates earns a little over $28 million a day, almost $250 a second.

Whether it be Oprah, a CEO or a ball player, the amounts they earn are absurd. There is simply no justification.

Robin Hood would have his hands full in today's world.

His hands full, true, but wouldn't he have some great targets? His only problem would be where to start.

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This is a woman that doesn't heal the sick, teach our children, build a product, or govern our country.

I've learned many things from watching Oprah's show. In many ways her spirit and positive energy have helped heal those who are sick (i.e., stuck in dead-end or abusive relationships, those not realizing they may have depression, etc.). She may not build a product, but she is helping build people's souls, which is far more important. If you don't think Oprah is governing our country, guess again. Her opinion carries a lot of weight. While Oprah may make a ton of money, check out how much she gives away. I admire her immensely and believe she has done very well for herself, especially when you consider her very humble beginnings. Go Oprah!!!!

The reason she gives so much away is to avoid taxes.
I would prefer she pay the taxes.

She has done very well for herself. Herself is the center of her show--her weight etc--who cares?

Add her to my list of Lou Dobbs etc.,

Alice, when you're right, you're right.

Merri, with all due respect, I stand by what I said. There is not one single person in the entire world who performs enough service to mankind to deserve that kind of earnings. The fact that we are willing to see anyone makes that much money and think it is all right is the underlying factor that has just about destroyed us as a country.

I'm not anti Oprah, I just don't see what she does as being worth that much of our money.

Don't think it's ours?

Think again.

Abe F. March wrote:

Alice, when you're right, you're right.

Thank you, Abe,

To expand, Oprah is made of flesh and blood. She has a weight problem.

She can keep folks fixated on her eating--I have no interest in what she eats or weighs .

She gains weight and loses weight--that is not inspiring to me.

Walking away from an abusive relationshp is a no- brainer.

I am anti-Oprah

(Oops, Alice, we cross-posted. It looks like we sort of disagree, but not completely.)

No one ought to be able to hold on to that kind of money, but if anyone who has it works toward paying it back, she does. Just yesterday I was watching her show. She was having the homes of several needy families completely remodeled and redecorated. The only problem I had was that she couldn't believe that this family's home was only around 1150 sq. feet. She seemed to find that amusing. That's the size of my garden home. I find it quite sufficient, personally, and am happy with my own decorating.



Ann

If you realize that many great homes can be bought for $150,000, which they can, by the way, then with one years eranings Oprah could buy 1833 new homes for people that don't have one.

I'm not saying that Oprah and Bill, as well as other people in the billionaire class, don't do a lot of good. I'm sure they do. But what one has to understand is that they do it without causing any hardship at all for themselves. They also get a great tax write off for all of what they give, and they look really good doing it. I'm more impressed with a guy that earns $20,000 a year and manages to give $100 to somebody that needs it. The $100 means a lot more to this guy than all that Oprah gives away means to her. Granted, what she gives away means more to those that get it, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make.

Ann, 1150 square feet of your own home looks pretty good to someone who has always rented and has no chance at all of owning one otherwise.

It's all about perspective. We hear of Bill Gates giving away ten million dollars, and we gasp at how good hearted he is. Gates is worth $40 billion. If a man was worth $400,000 and gave away $10, we wouldn't think that was so great, but it's the same ratio.

So, while they do a lot of good, if they gave till it hurt, like so many people with low incomes do, then think about how much many more people they could help.

I agree!

Oprah has a really cushy job. She's well fit doing what she does.

Suppose in a game of football, two teams A and B play one another. If team A scores 3 goals and team B scores 5 goals, then team B is a clear winner. If team B scores 6 goals, team B is still a clear winner. Team B scoring 8 or 10 goals becomes a pointless exercise, as there are excesses that do not justify the effort in scoring higher and higher numbers of goals.

If Oprah earned $1 million, nobody would complain. If she earned $10 million or a $100 million or anything more than this.. it becomes another pointless exercise like the team B example I gave above.

She doesn't need this kind of money. Money is in short supply in America at this time, so good point from E Don

Ahad,

I would even allow her 5 miilion for cleverness.

She probably has to pay her weight loss coach.
She shops at elegant places.
It would be rather jolting for her to frequent Walmart.

Don,

Your Newsweek article was priceless. I hope everyone read it.

Don, not saying Gates isn't doing good things, just saying that he can afford to give billions. In spite of all he's given, he's still worth over $40 billion. I'd say he gives as much as he does for a couple of reason. One, I think he probably really does want to help people, and two, I think that he gives to keep from paying taxes on the money. Nothing wrong with that, but still, he's not giving enough to cause any hardship on himself.

We both know that if he leaves the bulk of his wealth to charity, a lot of the money will go to salaries for those running the organizations, and while they aren't as wealthy as he is, they still aren't hurting.

I'd like to see some of the money these people give go directly into the hands of a lot of people who don't have a dime, but most of it doesn't do that. The people who need a hand the most are the ones that are trying to live on food stamps in rented trailer with no phone and no lights. But when they are brought up, they are called welfare bums and worse.

I say he needs to pay a visit to this board, check on the total worth of everyone here, and give everyone who is worth less than $500,000 a million dollars. Anyone else like to see that happen? Well, don't hold your breath, because it never will.

Great idea E.Don. You invite him. He lives not too far from me, but is reclusive.

He likes to eat at Burgermaster at the bottom of the hill because he can eat in his vehicle.

Gee, Maybe the president will step in, put a 'cap' on their earnings, and make them give the excess back to the government.

Do you recall the outcry when Obama said he would raise taxes on the wealthy?

Oh how the Republicans yelled," Foul"

That was wealth redistribution--we need that in my opinion.

You will find no one tighter fisted than a wealthy person.

Penny by penny is how they made it.

They are likely to give to charities but not to the poor--after all if they made it--anyone can.

People get and stay rich by not spending it. Maybe they are going to line their caskets with it.

zadaconnaway wrote:

People get and stay rich by not spending it. Maybe they are going to line their caskets with it.

Zada,

That is why I have no problem with them being taxed heavily.

Money is to be spent--not hoarded

If no one will spend the economy will not survive.

If the loop holes and exemptions were eliminated, they would be paying a lot more in taxes!

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I say he needs to pay a visit to this board, check on the total worth of everyone here, and give everyone who is worth less than $500,000 a million dollars.

He can give my million to the folks living in the tent city that used to be in Bellevue. I'm not sure where it is now. I'm sure there is more than one, actually. They need it more than I do.

"The politicians would piss it away on more of their useless pet projects or another damn war!"

EXACTLY!!!!