I was looking up some of the salaries that certain world leaders make. Why? Just because I have an inquiring mind, that's why. I found several sources and most were not in agreement. "Official" figures vary significantly, depending on what article you read. This is odd, since you would think such a figure is pretty straightforward. Apparently not. The American president's salary of $400,000 seemed to be shown as that in every article I read, but the salaries of others were shown as (sometimes vastly) differing amounts, from source to source.
Since I frankly don't have the ambition to go to each and every country's official website, the following is a "consensus" from different lists I have found. None of these include the often enormous expense allowances that the leaders get in addition to their salary. President Obama, for example, gets a big free house and a free limousine and a huge jet and free food and...
Gordon Brown, UK = $353,188 (All these are in US dollars.)
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia = $81,000 (Yeah, right.)
Barack Obama, US = $400,000
Felipe Calderon, Mexico = $189,027
Michelle Bachelet, Chile = $134,429
Pratibha Patil, India = $36,434
Nicolas Sarkozy, France, got his salary doubled in 2008 to $346,000. (No comment.)
Charles, Prince of Wales earns $26,043,520.00 (Not sure I would have used the word "earns". (Charles is slowly morphing into his father. Don't know if you've noticed that or not.)
Other countries:
China = $10,500 (Anybody out there believe that?)
Canada = $212,700
Australia = $255,500
Japan = $240,000
Germany = $363,400 (She seems to have shattered the glass ceiling.)
South Africa = $127,000
South Korea = $223,000
North Korea? Couldn't find it. Probably the dear leader doesn't take a salary at all.
Others that I couldn't readily find, but was interested enough to do some digging:
Bobby "Kiss my ass or die" Mugabe, Zimbabwe: Good news! - Zimbabwe broke its pay freeze in order to give BM a pay raise. Glory be to the father. The increase alone was $1.4 billion. His official salary before the raise was only $63,305,000, so he is finally realizing his true worth. You do the math. I can't bear to do it. All I can think of are the starving children in his country.
Mahmoud AhmaAhmaAhmadinnnejadddd, Iran: I got a totally unbiased account of this great man from an Iranian website, and I am sure it was the truth. Mahmoud is such a simple man, receiving only $250 for occasional university lectures and eschewing any official salary. This god-like leader drives a 1957 Pugeot 400 car and brown bags his meager food to work each day. When he became president, he donated all his Persian carpets to mosques. He lives in a small house his father gave him. I tried to read more but I began to have stomach spasms.
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia: Never mind.
Muammar Gaddafi, Libya. Unable to find this, but Mo is just a colonel in the army, so probably not that much. The oil income is reserved for the people, you know.
Spot the odd one out.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm letting it go. I was told to.