kab: I guess raise is latin for "be glad you're even employed".

You weren't talking about those things where your pay goes up, were you?

Thiiiiiiiiis.

Rootus: What exactly do you propose as a solution? If the owners of the company are willing to pay the CEO big bucks, that's their business. Don't like it? Start your own business are use your own low salary as a competitive advantage.

Yes, because barriers to entry don't exist.

*facepalm*

/you squawk economic terminology without understanding basic economics

luckybastard Quote 2011-04-01 10:04:08 PM
Smackledorfer

I can understand your anger, but I really would like to see an alternative that doesn't involve pitchforks and revolution.

I bet the Pichfork and Revolution manufacturers association of America disagrees with you.

What's a raise? Just took a furlough last week and got notified today I need to take another furlough in the second quarter. That five furlough weeks in the last two years.

luckybastard: Someone has to take the reins of a company after the founders relinquish control. Whether one certain individual "deserves" the position is up to the shareholders; if they choose to pay ridiculous amounts to some assbag who ruins their company, they lose that amount. I don't see what the problem with that is, except in the case of the "bailed-out" companies.

What's the alternative to paying CEOs their market value? A salary cap? A CEO compensation czar?

On the larger employment front, I'd say we'll see a more noticeable recovery within the next 18 months. Just bear down until then. This too shall pass.

Well, aside from a cultural shift -- and culture does have a lot to do with it, in Japan, for instance, Honda's top 10 executives get paid a combined ~$13M a year -- there are a lot of factors that push executive pay as high as they do in the U.S.

One of which is just how sheltered laws make corporations to their shareholders. Yes, financial information has to be reported and insider trading cannot occur, but a corporation's actions of, say, outsourcing its employees are usually largely unknown to the 5-levels-removed grandma who has her retirement fund in the corporation's stock.

One solution to this would be backing off on just how limited the liability protections of incorporating are. That would cause shareholders to actually look at the culture and attitude of a corporation rather than just the bottom line that quarter.

Another thing is that in a lot of industries, there is this massive move towards consolidation. The recent AT&T purchase of T-Mobile is a prime example. Government in the U.S. is far too easily bought and this allows corporations to pac-man like it does. Once they get large enough, their shareholders get desperate to keep everything from crumbling under its own weight and they hire some fast-talker for absurdly large amounts of money to do it. They fail a lot, of course.

Of course, all of these things are for not if the voting public is ill-educated and constantly bombarded with polarized partisan talking points about gay marriage or flag burning instead of focusing on more pressing issues such as the growing wealth gap.

Two point FIVE, thankyouverymuch.