Is the widespread belief that the economic game is rigged a huge problem?

Question

According to Forbes, some horrendously-performing CEOs are earning obscene amounts while their companies go bankrupt.

Kevin Sharer of Angen gets $12.3 million a year while his company's stock goes down 4% a year.

Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide gets $66 million a year, while his company's stock went down 9%.

In 1980, average CEO pay was 40 times that of the typical worker. Now it is 433 times!

CEOs can get these salaries, not because they are worth the money, but because the Board of Directors is full of the CEO's cronies, who were hired by him. Hence, average Americans seem to have a cynical view of money and their own compensation. The prevailing attitude seems to be that money is not to be taken seriously, and you can see how badly people are taking care of their own finances.

Is CEO pay to blame for this phenomenon, and if so, what should be done about it?

Answer 1

It isn't COE pay that causes this perception, rather it is a hangover of Marxist philosophy that uses unseen and imaginary bogeymen to explain the differences between people. You know the old myth of the hierarchies. Naturally the top of that fantasy list is occupied by either white or Jewish males. So using the illogical of the left the only reason we are not reading the works of a female Shakespear is because white males have prevented her from publishing. The reason the Palestinians have not achieved a livable society is because Jewish males have stopped them. American blacks underachieve because we live in a nation built on institutional racism. That last point of course makes all whites guilty and all blacks victims, which calls on us to destroy our institutions in the name of fairness. The handful of CEOs you site are only a smoke screen to hide the true agenda of the left, not an example of a system based on bias and greed.

Answer 2

CEOs get a lot of pay prospectively, not retrospectively. They do so because that is what they've negotiated voluntarily with the owners. Each party believes -- at the time of the agreement --that they are getting a fair deal. It is no different than a baseball player who negotiates a five year deal based on what he did the last couple of seasons. If he has 5 terrible seasons going forward, he still gets paid.

Answer 3

Shareholders get the kind of company they deserve. It is incumbent upon shareholders to be active in voting wisely, just as it should be for citizens.

The nice thing is that screwed-up companies are allowed by free-enterprise capitalism to die. I wish the same could be said for bad governments.

Answer 4

Teh CEOs are like top guns and sports players, like a key quarterback, so they have a track record and get paid.  then again they stae that Geroge Soros and company manipulated the currencies and made millions.  I see no reason this is not done in stocks and comodities.  They have just begun to find out about how insiders have been telling people about stuff that would happen way before so they could buy more or get out.  Unfortunately the people like to jump on the band wagon after it has made it's move and then when the big money pulls out they are stuck, but anthing is possible.

Answer 5

CEO pay as with movie star pay has only a momentary noting by the average citizen--as rubber necking a DUI wreck

Americans are crummy with money, because unlike with the 20's depression, we have so many safety nets