Almost every day, you hear another story about some CEO who just got paid $300 million for doing a tiny amount of work. Or no work at all. One guy got $500 million for retiring. Think about that: He got $500 million for the work he’s not going to be doing. Last year, three hedge-fund managers took home over $1 billion apiece. That’s billion with a B.

At first, like everyone else, I thought, “That’s crazy, no one is worth that kind of money.” But then it was explained to me by a 30-year-old billionaire hedge-fund manager on television that it just sounds crazy. It’s really OK, because that $300 million, that $1 billion is going to trickle down to you and me. That CEO is going to buy a house and clothes and cars for himself and his wife and his children, and all that money will get spread around to people who make the cars and the houses and the clothes. It’s really good for everyone, see?

And sure enough, that CEO bought not just one car, but several. A Maserati Gransport. And a Lamborghini. And that money trickles down to us every time an Italian auto worker vacations over here and stays in a Swiss-owned hotel and tips the maid. And that maid will spend all of her minimum wage money right here. Good deal, huh?

And that CEO did buy a bigger house, and he hired people to build that new house and paint the new house and decorate the new house and make fixtures for that new house. In Tuscany. And his other house in London. And a $22 million apartment on the Avenue Georges V in Paris.

And because they have a pad in Paris, that CEO’s wife will spend plenty of money on clothes. In Paris. Putting designers and dressmakers and sales clerks to work. In France where she flies once a month, first class. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on each trip. On Air France. And some of that money she’ll spend on short-term parking at the airport, and we all know how expensive that is. She may as well be stuffing hundred-dollar bills in our pockets the way it’s trickling down.

She’d like to bring the kids with her, but Stepanie’s on safari in Kenya. And Brad’s mountain climbing in Patagonia before he goes off to Oxford.