Inept leaders take notice.

[Gannet167]

CS, I'm not spun up about it and I could care less what Apple's CEO does. I don't own Apple shares and I don't work for Apple. I don't even own any of their products. It's a free country, he can choose to not accept money which he is completely entitled to accept. Whether he ever had possession of the money, paid income tax or not is semantics. He could have had it and instead declined it. Effectively, he donated it - as he voluntarily chose not to accept it. Call it whatever you want, but if someone owe's me $10, and I tell them just to keep it, I have effectively given them the money. I don't need them to hand it to me, only to have me hand it back to them, to get to the exact same result.

(BTW, your sarcastic "Are you familiar with a thing called income taxes?" really doesn't add to your commentary. Obviously I have heard of income taxes. I studied tax extensively in university.) I wouldn't be surprised if he's setting up a tax haven shell company to flow those dividends into later, to avoid paying tax on them.

His shares may have been part of a compensation package, but that doesn't make his dividends derived from his compensation package any more than me taking my salary, buying shares in Toyota, getting a dividend. Are my dividends now "compensation" merely because I used my employment "compensation" to acquire an investment? Nope. His dividends are separate from compensation.

You can rant about how Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, Enron and Greenspan ruined the world and what crooks they all are. We probably agree that there is some merit to that argument. My point is giving (or, for you CS, at least not accepting) money from an overly profitable and unimaginably rich corporation has little if anything to do with "leadership." I'm sure he's rich enough that it doesn't affect him in the slightest. But if this is about leadership - please tell me - what example is he setting for his subordinates? What's the moral high road he's taking?

I would have taken that money, paid tax on it (which he probably should pay more of anyway) and if I still didn't want it, donated it to a charity. That would be a philanthropic act and demonstrating some leadership.

[Colonel Sanders]

Whether he ever had possession of the money, paid income tax or not is semantics

No, it's a matter of $30M in tax that he didn't pay. That might be small change to you, but it's enough to make the rest of us sit up and take notice.

I studied tax extensively in university

Did you learn about federal and state income taxes?

I would have taken that money

You avoided my question about CEO's that work for
a symbolic buck are year. Are they financial morons
compared to you, too?

[Gannet167]

CS, I'm the one who cited an example of CEO's taking a $1 salary in my FIRST POST and I clearly explained how that is a different situation completely. You might try going back and reading what I posted. I didn't avoid your question - I answered it before you'd even asked it. I'm well aware of those examples - I'm the guy that brought them up.

Yes, I learned about all types of taxation, although I don't know why you're questioning me about my academic credentials. Let's try to remain on topic.

You've gone from complaining about the behaviour of bankrupt Wall Street firms execs, to putting a straw man argument that Warren Buffett is a fool because of something or other, to a commentary on taxation policy, you're calculating executive tax returns (by the way, dividends are treated differently, your math is wrong.) and now you're stuck on the definition of donation - via whether or not the Federal or State governments have taxed it. It really seems that you're trolling and just trying to pick an argument here.

You've taken a friendly discussion where like minded people share ideas to a sarcastic banter, asking rhetorical questions like if I've heard of income taxes and twisting what I've said into making it sound like I feel that others are morons compared to me. How about a little civility? This is, after all, just a polite discussion. I can only hope you don't respond to people in the cockpit that way - if they disagree with your point of view - do you accuse of thinking everyone else is a moron? Calm down. I'm here for friendly discussion, there's no need for the online equivalent of poking someone's chest.

I don't care if the CEO paid taxes, that isn't my point at all. This has nothing to do with federal or state taxation rates or policy reform. It's not about Warren Buffett at all. I don't think anyone is a moron. I happen to disagree with the decision of Apple's CEO and find it illogical and pointless. It does not demonstrate any form of leadership. That's all I'm saying and all I really wanted to talk about. I'd say that we agree to disagree, but you're just generally disagreeing with everything I say and I can't really see what your point is, other than to pick me apart. I'm sorry that having a different opinion than you has riled you up. If you want to argue about financial terminology I'm sure there's a great forum for that somewhere. Peace.

[Colonel Sanders]

Must be nice to live in another world where millions of dollars in taxes don't matter.

I take issue with your repeated and nonsensical assertion that he "donated" $75M to Apple.

You cannot donate something that you never had. This is very simple to understand. If in fact he had actually donated the money to Apple as you have asserted over and over and over and over and over and over again, he would have accepted $75M in income, paid $30M in taxes, then donated $45M to Apple. Or someone else. Whatever.

But that clearly never happened, except in your weird fantasy world.

[mbav8r]

Where are you getting 30 million in taxes from? Here's an example of what the super rich pay,

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released tax records on Tuesday indicating he is paying $6.2 million in taxes on a total of $42.5 million in income over the years 2010 and 2011.
Hardly the tax rate you're quoting and I agree with g167, you don't have to have the money in your account to consider it a donation and lastly, I'm sure apple will pay corporate tax on that 75mil, it's not like the money disappeared when he declined it.

[bmc]

I think someone's underwear is too tight.

[Colonel Sanders]

And Now For Something Completely Different:

How about I accept and embrace your rhetoric that the CEO
of Apple is a "financial idiot" (exact quote of yours) compared
to you.

If that is so, why does he have so much more money than you?
And what does that make you? Objectively something much,
much dumber than an idiot - all according to you.

[Gannet167]

CS, I did not call him an idiot, that is not an "exact" quote. If you're going to be a jack@ss and troll for a fight, try to get what the other person wrote correct- ok? I really have no idea why you're attacking me here and nit picking every detail of my posts. My opinion differs from yours, get over it. You're free to think I'm wrong - there's no need to be insulting.

For the record - here's what I wrote:

this isn't indicative of his leadership - it's just financial idiocy.

I also did not compare anyone to myself. You're somehow twisting my remarks to mean that I am comparing him to me - let's be clear, I am not saying he's any better/smarter/more or less of an idiot etc. Try re-reading my post.

why does he have so much more money than you? And what does that make you? Objectively something much, much dumber than an idiot - all according to you.

Actually, nope you got it wrong again. I did not say anything that would lead to comparing anyone. Objectively, it makes him more wealthy than I am. Nothing more, nothing less. You're implying I'm something "much dumber than an idiot" (not my words, not at all) because my net worth is lower? That's a wonderfully fallacious argument.

I may have had a fantastically well paid career as an executive. I chose to be a pilot instead. I never mentioned my net worth or even alluded to comparing my financial decisions against Apple's CEO's decisions. Where do you invent these delusions from?

If you want to use wealth to compare how much of an idiot various people are, then your value system is quite misguided and pathetic. By your analysis, if your net worth is less than mine then you must be an even more of an "idiot" than anyone else mentioned - merely because you're not as wealthy as me?

CS- why don't you take the day off, stop insulting on this forum and try to stay on topic - I'm trying to talk about leadership. I'm here for polite and friendly discussion. Not to be insulted or insult anyone else. I did call that CEO's decision financial idiocy. I didn't call him an idiot, I'm sure he's a brilliant guy. I just happen to disagree with his decision because I don't see the point of it. This clearly really unsettles you - both my opinion and that someone would disagree with you.

CS: Relax, and please, could you stop putting up straw man arguments, mis-quoting what I have said and generally taking any and every attempt to be insulting? I hope this isn't the sort of decorum you use in the cockpit.

Back on topic, if anyone's up for discussion on the subject of leadership...

[Colonel Sanders]

You win! I agree that you're financially smarter than Apple's CEO.

[sky's the limit]

And we keep getting emails asking why the Water Cooler was closed. Exhibit "A"