Wall Street vs Hollywood photo 258001 740 0 right photo A few weeks ago my father and I were discussing the influence that American corporations have on politics It s a pretty important topic these days given the rather bleak state of the economy and the seemingly endless corruption being uncovered Between the Tea Party the Occupy Movement and everyone in between nobody really seems happy with the way the government is conducting its business And in my opinion rightfully so But as we continued chatting we discussed the fact that for whatever reason voters instinctively tie Wall Street CEOs to the Republican Party and Hollywood celebrities to the Democratic Party It s one of those things that most of the voting populous just seems to accept Obviously there are notable exceptions to this rule but I think most people would assume that if you work on Wall Street you re voting Republican and if you work in Hollywood for a Democrat While there are undoubtedly some social issues that could be addressed the biggest problem in 2012 is hands down the economy Liberal friends of mine often bring up the huge disparity of wealth that exists within Wall Street corporations how that gap is widening and how it is being used to control Washington The data seems to corroborate this and I definitely believe it s a problem we should be intelligently discussing as a nation But my father was quick to add to our discussion that this same disproportion of wealth is rampant throughout Hollywood as well The difference is that nobody really seems to notice much less care Curiously we even go so far as to celebrate this disparity with the affectionate term celebrity This raises a pretty interesting philosophical question If two groups are ultimately responsible for the same fiscal gluttony why is one celebrated and the other castigated Since the crux of our discussion was riding on the back of conjectures and assumptions I thought it would be interesting to actually do some research on the matter That is how do the top dogs of Wall Street and Hollywood actually stack up against one another Is there a difference between them and if so what is that difference After a bit of online research I constructed this table of the top twenty Wall Street and Hollywood salaries of 2010 it was difficult to find consistent data for 2011 The results are pretty interesting table class BLOGData tr th colspan 4 class top middle Wall Street th th colspan 3 class top Hollywood th tr tr th CEO th th Company th th class right Employees th th class middle right Millions th th Celebrity th th Title th th class right Millions th tr tr td Philippe P Dauman td td Viacom td td class right 10 900 td td class middle right 84 5 td td James Cameron td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 257 0 td tr tr td Ray R Irani td td Occidental Petroleum td td class right 11 000 td td class middle right 76 1 td td Johnny Depp td td Actor td td class right 100 0 td tr tr td Lawrence J Ellison td td Oracle td td class right 111 297 td td class middle right 70 1 td td Steven Spielberg td td Director Producer td td class right 80 0 td tr tr td Michael D White td td DirecTV td td class right 25 700 td td class middle right 32 9 td td Christopher Nolan td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 71 5 td tr tr td John F Lundgren td td Stanley Black amp Decker td td class right 36 700 td td class middle right 32 6 td td Leonardo DiCaprio td td Actor td td class right 62 0 td tr tr td Brian L Roberts td td Comcast td td class right 126 000 td td class middle right 28 2 td td Tim Burton td td Director td td class right 53 0 td tr tr td Robert A Iger td td Walt Disney td td class right 156 000 td td class middle right 28 0 td td Adam Sandler td td Actor Producer Writer td td class right 50 0 td tr tr td Alan Mulally td td Ford Motor Co td td class right 164 000 td td class middle right 26 5 td td Todd Phillips td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 34 0 td tr tr td Samuel J Palmisano td td IBM td td class right 426 751 td td class middle right 25 2 td td Taylor Lautner td td Actor td td class right 33 5 td tr tr td David N Farr td td Emerson Electric td td class right 133 200 td td class middle right 22 9 td td Robert Downey Jr td td Actor td td class right 31 5 td tr tr td Howard Schultz td td Starbucks td td class right 149 000 td td class middle right 21 7 td td Will Smith td td Actor Producer td td class right 29 0 td tr tr td William C Weldon td td Johnson and Johnson td td class right 114 000 td td class middle right 21 6 td td Joe Roth td td Producer td td class right 28 5 td tr tr td Louis C Camilleri td td Phillip Morris International td td class right 78 300 td td class middle right 20 6 td td Kristen Stewart td td Actress td td class right 28 5 td tr tr td Randall L Stephenson td td AT amp T td td class right 256 420 td td class middle right 20 2 td td Jerry Bruckheimer td td Producer td td class right 27 5 td tr tr td Miles D White td td Abbot Laboratories td td class right 90 000 td td class middle right 20 0 td td Robert Pattinson td td Actor td td class right 27 5 td tr tr td George W Buckley td td 3M td td class right 80 000 td td class middle right 19 7 td td Jason Blum td td Producer Writer Director Producer td td class right 26 5 td tr tr td Louis Chenevert td td United Technologies td td class right 199 900 td td class middle right 19 5 td td Tyler Perry td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 25 0 td tr tr td Robert P Kelly td td Bank of New York Mellon td td class right 48 700 td td class middle right 19 4 td td Jennifer Aniston td td Actress td td class right 24 5 td tr tr td Muhtar Kent td td Coca Cola td td class right 139 600 td td class middle right 19 2 td td Jon Favreau td td Director Producer td td class right 24 0 td tr tr td Robert J Stevens td td Lockheed Martin td td class right 126 000 td td class middle right 19 1 td td Nicolas Cage td td Actor td td class right 23 5 td tr tr td td td td td td td class middle nbsp td td td td td td td tr tr td td td class total strong Total strong td td class right strong 2 483 468 strong td td class middle right strong 628 0 strong td td td td class total strong Total strong td td class right strong 1 037 0 strong td tr tr td td td class total strong Average strong td td class right strong 124 173 strong td td class middle right strong 31 4 strong td td td td class total strong Average strong td td class right strong 51 9 strong td tr tr td td td class total strong Source strong td td colspan 2 class middle right span class source a href http money cnn com galleries 2011 news 1104 gallery top_ceo_pay index html money cnn com a span td td td td class total strong Source strong td td class right span class source a href http www therichest org entertainment vanityfairtop 40 highest paid stars in hollywood therichest org a span td tr table I was actually pretty shocked by the side by side comparison Certainly we re all aware of the amount of money that celebrities make but I was a little surprised to discover that the Hollywood list was significantly better than the Wall Street list Even more surprising is that the Wall Street figures include base salaries bonuses yearly stock grants and options and even estimated company perks The Hollywood figures only include estimated earnings from movies and specifically exclude special appearances television works and perks photo 258006 740 0 center A side by side graph of the top 20 Hollywood vs Wall Street salaries in 2010 br ordered from highest salary to lowest br a href http www kevinludlow com photos download 2658eb28c55fcebd5baf5baf7ac1a199 Download High Res a photo br style clear both Of course there are plenty of other factors that can be considered too For example Wall Street corporations are frequently condemned for allowing huge disparities of wealth between their employees In other words while the CEO might be making tens of millions of dollars annually those working just as hard at the bottom may be struggling just to feed their families I would not disagree that this is a major concern of our long term economy However having been an extra on a movie set before I know for a fact that I was only paid minimum wage for my work and suspect this is pretty consistent across the board Moreover and having lived in Hollywood I m positive that your average actor is flat broke Therefore it would seem to suggest that the same income gaps probably exist in Hollywood as they do on Wall Street So why is one fundamentally better than the other Another common point of critique is that corporate leaders are consistently sending American jobs overseas This is definitely a political point of contention and another serious issue we should be trying to intelligently address But again I m not so sure Hollywood operates on a much different principle Many of the 2010 and 2011 blockbusters I researched were filmed in exotic overseas locations In those particular cases the national and local economies of foreign nations were the beneficiaries not the United States I would also suspect that foreign film crews are predominantly used in overseas shoots as well albeit have no specific evidence to support this claim But again couldn t Hollywood just fly entire film crews and cast members even the extras abroad Naturally the answer is yes but much like Wall Street s argument their margins would significantly suffer But why is this an acceptable practice in one realm and not the other We might also consider the topic of actual employment numbers em included in the table for reference em While I unfortunately was unable to locate data on specific movies various online searches suggested a modern summer blockbuster might require between a few hundred and a few thousand cast and crew members But for sake of argument let s assume a big Hollywood blockbuster is going to require 10 000 people and that the top billed actor is willing to settle for just 20 million these figures should be greatly skewed in favor of Hollywood Sam Palmisano the CEO of IBM gets paid 25 2 million annually a tremendous sum of money no doubt But we might also consider that he essentially presides over more than 426 000 employees not to mention shareholders The per employee financial difference here is so great that it can actually be measured in orders of magnitude and that s making very generous assumptions in the case of Hollywood So again I am in no way attempting to justify Wall Street but this same Hollywood disparity is phenomenal especially if we consider a per employment sort of scenario We could even delve into the topic of corporate subsidies if we wanted to but once more Hollywood gets tremendous incentives and tax breaks to do what they do Not only that but they have the convenience of regulating their own industry whereas Wall Street at least has to contend with the SEC and a few other governmental bodies The bottom line is that I love Leonardo DiCaprio as much as the next guy but I sincerely doubt he is going to give up the earnings of his next 50 million movie deal so that his set gaffers can get paid better No more than the average CEO is going to give up his 50 million dollar salary so that the company electricians can get paid better The fact is that both Wall Street and Hollywood have a lengthy list of economic pros and cons In some cases those pros and cons overlap and in other cases they re unique to the industry The point is that neither is better than the other when it comes to addressing the dramatic income gaps that appear to be widening in the United States And yet for some reason it seems that the country remains deeply divided on which side is good and which side is bad which side is celebrated and which side is condemned As with most of my writings my point here is not to make a case in favor of one side or the other Rather my contention is simply that as a nation we are so incredibly susceptible to marketing and hyperbole driven agendas that we ve become deaf and blind to the realities of our own frustrations We completely ignore the fact that both sides are willing participants of nearly identical agendas I believe our greatest societal flaw is that we try to rationalize why one side is somehow better than the other one completely ignoring the possibility that perhaps there are some pretty singular agendas floating between the two of them Personally I commend anybody who is able to play the system for what it is and come out millions of dollars ahead of everyone else I only wish I were clever enough to do the same But having succumbed to a life far from that reality I just wish my fellow countrymen and women would consider the fact even if for just a moment that perhaps their political team of choice isn t really all they ve convinced themselves it is I think that would truly be worth something we could all benefit from