| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 8:44:46 AM | | I have mixed feelings after watching this the other day. On the one hand there seemed to be a number of congress people who were intimidated, non-confrontational and actually seemed to condone the compensation these guys receive. On the other, there were a few congress people who really laid into these people. Prince, Mizoula, and the other major firm's CEOs each received salaries in the hundreds of millions during a year when much of America is going into foreclosure. Hiding behind the premise of doing right by shareholders these guys earn hundreds of times more than what their company's front line employees earn. As I watched the way much of congress reacted to the CEOs on the panel it became obvious these guys are running a large part of America and have a profound impact on the American way of life. Most discouraging is the knowledge I didn't vote for any of them. | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 9:03:28 AM | | I would think the non-confrontational Congress people are the ones hoping to land a Corporate possition when their term is done and don't want to limit their "future" bonuses. | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 9:10:04 AM | Hopefully, they will build a gallows on the White House lawn and televise the hangings...
Until these people realise that the greedy CEO types aren't going to change their ways until they see their peers swinging in the wind it won't change a thing...
Enough with the robber barons. | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 9:54:15 AM | It isnt any surprise as it is these CEO's and the companies they run who contributed generously to the campaigns for them to get into office.
Who is gonna bite the hand that so generously fed them as well as perhaps continue to feed them after their term with nice kickback jobs or as hired lobbyists.
Remember it is these CEO's who REALLY run our country as they are the ones who bribe our government officials. For this to change we need to seriously rewrite our whole political system and the way our leaders are chosen as well as what power they have.
As for the issue of CEO compensation itself i have a solution to that problem.
Eliminate minimum wage, instead replace it with a maximum wage instead that is based on a fixed ratio above what the lowest paid employee makes. That makes it so if the boss/owner/CEO wants to get a raise he needs to give the rest of the employees a raise too.
Also mandate it so that if any paycuts or layoffs have to happen the start happening from the top on down.
Your average major business can operate without a head and go on for quite a while that way, often times they even run things in ways that the line employees KNOW is a mistake because the people at the top dont really know how the business runs at the operational levels that the line employees work.
in business it is the line employees who are the ones who do the real work and are actually where the money comes from. the line employees are the ones creating the wealth that the CEOs and shareholders get to enjoy.
Management never does any real work. They get to make bank in pay for sitting on thier arse in boring meetings, boinking their administrative assistants, playing golf and powertripping on everyone else. All while everyone who does the real work and creates the wealth have to work their arse off for long hard hours just for the luxury of barely being able to help thier landlord or banker buy a new benz | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 1:11:01 PM |
Eliminate minimum wage, instead replace it with a maximum wage instead that is based on a fixed ratio above what the lowest paid employee makes. That makes it so if the boss/owner/CEO wants to get a raise he needs to give the rest of the employees a raise too.
How would you handle a commissioned salesman?
Your fixed wage scheme is simliar to what is attributed to heavily contributing to the equities market crash in 2000/2001. These sorts of ideas are easily circumvented. | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 1:30:29 PM | | The accumulation of wealth through the equities markets is random and steeped in self gratification, in my limited and amazingly biased opinion. While the Ben and Jerry's profit model concept might be a bit too vanilla to truly solve the problem on a grand scale, revisiting the basic ideas behind supply side economics might be a good idea. Some one like Warren Buffet makes a small side comment to some one at a McDonalds drive through and the entire equity market shifts. Ruining meager 401ks and mutual funds globally. While employee benefits (401k, sep plans, etc.) have come some distance they are nowhere compared to executive compensation. The idea of "i'm gonna get mines and the rest of you can die off" is archaic and needs to go away. I am certainly not advocating socialism (as that seems to be the standard retort to this kind of rhetoric) and am definitely for personal property. However, the difference in compensation these days, compared to even 5 years ago can't be unnoticed. | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 1:58:56 PM |
As I watched the way much of congress reacted to the CEOs on the panel it became obvious these guys are running a large part of America and have a profound impact on the American way of life. Most discouraging is the knowledge I didn't vote for any of them.
Your dollars are your votes 
Mozillo is a good example from my own personal life. I'm in the mortgage business myself, and neither I nor anyone at the last 2 brokerage companies I've worked for has sent a deal to Countryslime for the last couple of years, even when they had quicker and easier underwriting (and sometimes better pricing) than most conforming lenders. We took the business elsewhere because we grew to hate the company's practices.
Now if only all the other brokers would follow suit  | |
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| Congressional Hearings on CEO compensation
Posted: 3/12/2008 5:19:03 PM | The problem is delusion.
First is the delusion about capitalism itself. Most of us believe that capitalists are wealthy.
Most capitalists aren't wealthy. Most are happy to make a decent living. And a lot lose their shirt. Capitalism is damned risky.
The second is the delusion the CEOs have, the delusion they are capitalists. We believe it too.
The CEOs aren't capitalists. They're just employees just like the rest of the people in the company. And they don't take any risks. Even is they pilot the company they are responsible for into the ground they still get paid pretty much the same.
These people need a shrink more than they do a Congressional committee. | |
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