Plumbers Will Be Richer Than Bankers
With apologies to NBC...this is must see TV. In the following Tech Ticker interview, Boston University Prof. Laurence Kotlikoff states that high profile careerists like doctors, lawyers and investment bankers may wind up packing a less powerful dollar than their local plumber.
So how heavy is the burden of prestige? Is a top school really worth the price of admission? These themes have surfaced more and more in the public eye and are certainly of concern to future Wall Street professionals. After all, the era of gargantuan bonuses may be coming to an end. This has brought about a healthy dose of questioning the status quo with regards to the attitudes surrounding education and prosperity.
Are you guys still cool with the 80-90 hour workweeks and everything that comes with them...if you know some trade school products will be getting more bang for the buck?
I always wonder whether the lure of the IB/PE/VC track has any relative strength outside of it's monetary potential...is anyone in finance for anything other than money?
Is the Kotlikoff/Davidowitz/Rogers doctrine correct?
Will the farmers, plumbers and electricians be the pompous rich boys of the future?
While the bankers scream bloody foul?
Looks more likely than we ever thought possible...






Comments
This is true for a lot of
This is true for a lot of careers, but not those in finance.
His argument is more for people getting PhDs so they can be teachers; or (mediocre) doctors, because the opportunity cost of all the extra years of schooling.
As with anything, it's all about what you make of yourself. He's talking about the AVERAGE. If you're the most baller doctor or financier, you will make 50x the typical plumber.
This is why companies like APOL are evil...they screw the taxpayer and the student.
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It's my understanding that
It's my understanding that lawyer salaries have already been declining. Just because Job X pays great in year YYYY, doesn't mean it'll pay well in year YYZZ. People make this mistake all the time. I even heard some successful hedge fund manager talking about how when he first graduated from Harvard (I think it was Harvard) you could earn the same amount as a doctor, lawyer, and hedge fund manager. He choose to be in the hedge fund business and, luckily for him, hedge fund managers salaries blew up while doctor and lawyer salaries stayed the same and declined. It just goes to show you, it's not always easy to predict future wages. (If you're interested in the hedge fund manager interview, watch "Untold Wealth: The Rise of The Super Rich" on hulu).
When you listen to the video, the speaker talks about how much of a burden student debt is, which is also a huge issue for many high paying professions.
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Take it from me. I used to
Take it from me. I used to own a plumbing company and in no way could you make more money than a banker. More than a doctor, Yes. a Banker no. That's why im in finance now.
"Climbing a mountain that's only getting steeper"
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Are you implying you made
Are you implying you made more than the average dr. when you owned your plumbing company?
The advantage that bankers
The advantage that bankers will almost always have over plumbers is scalability, as described by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan. As a banker, the work required to do a $100 million deal is not substantially different than the work required to do a $10 billion (or larger) deal. Because of this, the best bankers will have few limits on their earnings potential. In the same way, a hedge fund manager can increase his earnings simply by managing more money. Lawyers also have this luxury, though it depends on the specialty (mass tort lawyers, for example, can make ridiculous amounts of money just by signing up more defendants).
The problem with plumbers and doctors is that a man can only fix so many toilets or perform so many surgeries in one day. Now, one could own a plumbing company or health services company and employ an unlimited amount of plumbers or doctors, but neither of these are industries that provide big economies of scale. You will not have any huge advantage over the guy down the street, and he can probably provide better service, which is an important quality when hiring a doctor or plumber.
I don't argue that the money to be made in plumbing will increase in the future- it's simple supply and demand. However, I don't think the best plumber will ever be able to outearn the best bankers, because of the natures of the professions.
The kids who end up working
The kids who end up working in finance have the intelligence and ability to do plumbing instead if plumbing indeed became more lucrative, but not the other way around. The potential supply of plumbers is a lot higher than the potential supply of financiers.
Oh shit wait that doesn't fit the populist-everyone's-a-winner narrative does it? I meant that finance and plumbing require their own special skills and abilities, and I can't wait until the day that plumbers get the last laugh on these greedy bankers who think they're so high and mighty.
if by plumbing you mean ceo
if by plumbing you mean ceo of contracting company, then yes you will outmake a banker easily.
Kid right across the hall from me is the son of the CEO of a contracting company in NYC. 6 figures is laughable to him... 7 figures is OK. We're talkin about 8 figures a year here...
but then again, this is just comparing the baller banker to the baller plumber.
I'd be a terrible plumber .
I'd be a terrible plumber . I'm pretty damm awful at most manual work, I'm much happier behind a nice excel model than a plumbing system. I don't think if I took these manual jobs I'd be able to earn what I earn at the moment without working very hard for little benefit. It all comes down to the individual and what they're good at and what they like doing.
And what do you do? I'm in
And what do you do?
I'm in uh...waste management.
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LeveragedFiend wrote: And
And what do you do?
I'm in uh...waste management.
I increase liquidity in vital areas and work with traditional PIPEs.
- Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered.
- The harder you work, the luckier you become.
- I believe in the "Golden Rule": the man with the gold rules.
I agree, I think the salaries
I agree, I think the salaries in banking will decline due to regulation and such. Whereas it is very unlikely that the salaries will be regulated in another industry. It's just that the original banking has to get back to how it used to be, borrowing and lending, and not the, now more profitable investment banking and trading.
Walkerr wrote: I agree, I
I agree, I think the salaries in banking will decline due to regulation and such. Whereas it is very unlikely that the salaries will be regulated in another industry. It's just that the original banking has to get back to how it used to be, borrowing and lending, and not the, now more profitable investment banking and trading.
You don't know what you're talking about. Borrowing and lending is much riskier than traditional IBD.
The average MD/DO pulls in
The average MD/DO pulls in 150K in pediatrics, 175K Internal Medicine, 275-300K General Surgery, 400K general ophtho/derm and 800K-1.5MM neurosurgery and vitreoretinal surg.
My ex-gf cheated on me with a
My ex-gf cheated on me with a plumber. True story :(
Easy wrote: The kids who end
The kids who end up working in finance have the intelligence and ability to do plumbing instead if plumbing indeed became more lucrative, but not the other way around. The potential supply of plumbers is a lot higher than the potential supply of financiers.
Oh shit wait that doesn't fit the populist-everyone's-a-winner narrative does it? I meant that finance and plumbing require their own special skills and abilities, and I can't wait until the day that plumbers get the last laugh on these greedy bankers who think they're so high and mighty.
Die in a fire. One of my good buddies is a MAJOR fund manager and he started in the business at age 18 after an illustrious career as a grocery bagger. Don't ever kid yourself that plumbers couldn't do your job.
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Edmundo Braverman wrote: One
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Keep eating all that damn
More is good, all is better
The Phantom wrote: My ex-gf
Edmundo Braverman wrote: Die
Cash4Gold wrote: Edmundo
Edmundo Braverman
I saw something like this for
Easy wrote: Edmundo
If a person is smart and
More is good, all is better
Haha, you have a point
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I agree. If a person is
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