Every time I hear someone defending excessive CEO pay and perks, I hear the same old tried and true refrain. "To get the best and brightest CEOs, we have to lure them with high salaries and big compensation packages".
So boys and girls, here is my stupid question of the day. Since we are paying them these absurd amounts of money, and supposedly they are the best of the best; why then are so many corporations losing billions of dollars and our economy is taking a dump?
I do believe they are so busy sitting on each others boards, raising each others pay packages, there is very little money or time left to do what they were hired for.
The same also holds true for government workers and athletes. As pay scales go up, service and performance seem to wane.
Let's try something different. Drop salaries drastically, and watch our economy rebound while services and performances increase. Bring them back to the real world, and have them live like the rest of us.
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5 comments:
Your commentary is so true. These CEOs basically line their pockets and worry about being on someone else's board. Take Mozilo, the embattled CEO of Countrywide Financial. He managed to get a "super" pay package in the millions, while his company was slowly sucking the blood out of homeowners. The company is now being investigated by the FBI. He is not the only one, but boy, he is certainly a good starting point. Great post!
What is amazing is that no one is even getting their hands slapped, and sent to stand in a corner for a time out.
Just bail them out, and let buisness as usuall go on.
How about some tight rules and regulations to stop people like you and me from getting hurt. the little money we do have is being eroded as these people make millions with no consequences for now or in the future.
At some point, a new trend will break the mold...some brilliant CEO will come along and work for nothing and share an absurd amount of the profits with everybody down to the janitor, and everybody will see it this as sure as a lit match in a dark closet. And things will get better until the rich elite figures out a way to stomp out this insurgency again. I have no doubt things have reached a point to where this will happen, but it sure is hard waiting for things to change when things have gotten so bad.
There are a few private companies that are doing that, but it is rarely reported.
I recall a furniture company that burned down, and the owner continued paying all of his workers until it was rebuilt. He wanted all his workers returning after it was rebuilt.
why then are so many corporations losing billions of dollars and our economy is taking a dump?
Fair question. Two part answer:
1 - I think shareholders should mandate that officers of a corporation show positive results before getting such huge bonuses. For example, many mortgage companies (like Countrywide as mentioned by Janet above) will already pay their chief officers huge bonuses even though their companies (shareholders) have experienced big losses. This is wrong in my opinion, but needs to be addressed by the real owners - the shareholders, not government.
2 - aside from financial institutions, some corporations like Ford and various airline corporations (and others) are so burdened by union mandates and union contracts they have huge overheads, less $$$ for R&D, and are less competitive because of the need to raise their prices to pay for all the union crap -- eventually they fail.
Ford motor company is really in a union-jam and was forced to sell off their Jaguar and Land Rover brands to an India firm. Ah, ain't unions great!
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