Tom Cruise $75 million
Leonardo diCaprio $37 million
Adam Sandler $37 million
Dwayne Johnson $36 million
Ben Stiller $33 million
Sacha Baron Cohen $30 million
Johnny Depp $30 million
Will Smith $30 million
Mark Wahlberg $27 million
Taylor Lautner $26.5 million
Robert Pattinson $26.5 million
Are you going to tell me that Sacha Baron Cohen adds more to our national well-being than, say, the CEO of a department store chain? The celebs act like corporate chieftains, too, in that they employ people -- managers, financial planners, personal assistants. Recording/performing artists (the list, above, is only the top-paid movie stars of this year) employ stage crews, etc. So, they're bosses, too, and probably not better to work for than any other boss.
If we're talking not annual income but total assets, Stephen Spielberg is worth $3 billion, according to Forbes. He's as much a corporate honcho as the chairman of Archer Daniels Midland. For that matter, Oprah Winfrey is worth $2.7 billion, which makes most of the top movie celebs look like pikers.
Are Hollywood rich folk better role models than corporate rich folk? Are they nicer to their pets? Do they spend their money more wisely? Do they love their country more? No. The only real difference is that most of them affirm the liberal/progressive shibboleths. So that makes their obscene wealth okay, right?
I am so tired of all the class warfare stuff. There are nice rich people and nasty rich people. There are responsible rich people and irresponsible rich people. And the same for poor people and folk in the middle. Their political opinions shouldn't make any difference to whether they are to be considered social lions or social lepers.
Class warfare isn't about raising the poor, it's about punishing the rich. Oh, yeah -- and about securing the power and perks of the self-appointed tribunes of the people who go about saying which rich people are heroes and which are bums.