Macbook Pro 15" 2.4GHz Core i5 8GB RAM - Constant RAM usage?

Hi,
I just upgraded my Macbook Pro's RAM to a DDR3 8GB 1067MHz setup that came highly recommended after much research on the topic. My question is, how come in my Activity Monitor I have so much RAM being used at any given time? It doesn't seem to matter if I have ZERO applications or 15 applications open, it's constantly using more than 2GB.
I understand that inactive is just as good as free, but still even including inactive, it's still sucking more than 2GB with nothing open.
On top of that, I run NO virtual machines, yet I have roughly 1GB wired ALL THE TIME.
Now I've read mixed reviews about how OSX Snow Leopard manages RAM, and I have to say, I am concerned with these numbers. Also, I have no page outs, so I don't think I have a RAM stick issue.
Can someone please tell me what the heck is going on here? also if there is a program out there that can manage this better than SL is currently doing (which is a crappy job it seems).
Thanks in advance.

Francis, let me try to answer your questions.
The 1GB wired is your OSX, and can only be changed if you work at removing some parts that you don't need. I've read where some people have gotten the wired OSX memory down to 600MB, but it doesn't seem to be very productive.
As for having 2GB running, if you remove the 1GB for OSX, then you'll have dozens of tasks still running to do everything from running the monitor to sound to everything else. Moreover, they get into RAM, because there is plenty of room. BUT, if you open applications, some of these processes may grow or shrink depending on needs.
Here is an older article about Mac memory use. It's a bit dated, but pretty accurate.
I personally think you're fine. You have over 6GB available for everything you might do. I run Aperture in 64bit, and 4GB for me is more than fine.

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