It's Not Easy Being Ultra-Rich

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Fair wages, Gary...that's all. The American Dream, working hard and being rewarded for it.

Who decides what is fair?

You? The Politburo? Or the market?

If the market decides, well... guess what - the market did decide. The wages CEOs make are market-driven.

But I suspect you don't want the market to make these decisions. Please tell us who should.

Negotiation of wages between business and labor...that's how you do it. That's why labor unions came into existence. Gary believes that it's the rich who create wealth and economic prosperity...an oligarchic view of economics...the trickle down theory, and an oversight that without labor, none of that wealth would exist either.

So basically your answer is The Politburo

I think Steven's point is that a bunch of quasi self-appointed elite employees (self-appointed as they are co-functioning as each other's employers seeing that they're members of each other's boards of directors) lining each other's pockets is hardly the market at work. That elite rather has the characteristics of The Politburo. Kim Jong Il would be proud of them...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Is Jeb Bush just being envious here or is he just cowtowing to the Prolitburo? (proliburo sounds like menu special at the local taco stand)

.....

'Threat to capitalism'

Too many incentives are wrong - most do less than they should to align managers with the interests of long-term owners by setting high hurdles and insisting execs keep skin in the game.

Too many companies continue to pay the top brass a king's ransom merely for doing decently - or for seriously screwing up.

How bad are things? Here's one wise man's assessment: "About half of American industry has grossly unfair compensation systems where the top executives are paid too much," says Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner at Berkshire Hathaway.

Florida governor Jeb Bush - a pro-market conservative - is even more blunt. Out-of-control compensation, he believes, is "a threat to capitalism."

Says Bush: "Large rewards for great results can still be attacked, but they're very defensible. But if the rewards for CEOs and their teams become extraordinarily high with no link to performance - and shareholders are left holding the bag - then it undermines people's confidence in capitalism itself."

The governor, whose $120 billion Florida pension fund is the fifth-largest in the country, is hardly the only appalled "owner." Some 90% of institutional investors think top execs are "dramatically" overpaid, according to a Watson Wyatt survey last fall.

In fact, ill will over excessive compensation is fast turning into a giant political problem for corporate America.

In a Bloomberg poll in March, more than 80% of Americans - evenly divided between the well-off and those making under $100,000-a-year - agreed most CEOs are paid "too much."

The commentariat on both the left and the right is foaming.

"In the time of the French Revolution," wrote conservative Bill O'Reilly of Fox News about the golden goodbye Exxon (Charts) handed its outgoing leader, "Lee Raymond and his $400 million pension would be running one step ahead of the guillotine." (Actually, Bill, only $98 million of that princely sum was the pension, but we take your point.)

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/for.../07/10/8380799/

Edited September 4, 2007 by Mister Fancypants

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Bush, Buffett, O'Reilly, those pesky institutional investors and of course the pesky public must all be commies at heart. The only defenders of the free market are the hard working CEO's. Thank God they're saving us from ourselves.

[Sinergy 3]

its not easzy being sleazy

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Bush, Buffett, O'Reilly, those pesky institutional investors and of course the pesky public must all be commies at heart. The only defenders of the free market are the hard working CEO's. Thank God they're saving us from ourselves.

Aye, comrade. I'll see you and Bill at tomorrow night's meeting.