I HAVE READ with equal parts fascination and distress Michael H. Trotter’s recent column, “Tax plutocrats to restrain their pay,” in the Feb. 13 Daily Report. Mr. Trotter’s basic premise appears to be that too many people are receiving “excessive compensation” in connection with their employment and that if the government were to tax away the advantages of this excess compensation by raising the top marginal tax rates, we could forever rid ourselves of the scourge of excessive compensation.
We, like Mr. Trotter, should avoid being drawn into any detailed consideration of the more prosaic and pedestrian aspects of this idea. For example, a painstaking sifting through Mr. Trotter’s prose and statistics will yield no definition of the term excessive compensation. Apparently, excessive compensation is something that chief executives, hedge fund managers, professional athletes, rappers and rock stars receive. Playing to his audience, Mr. Trotter assured readers of this publication that his proposal would not affect the tax obligations of “most lawyers, other professionals, mid-range executives, actors, athletes, rappers and rock stars.” Notably absent from the categorical caveat was any mention of Big Firm first-year associates.
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