But we can't raise their taxes, they're the job creators:
"The Institute for Policy Studies released its annual report on executive compensation today... [T]he report found that "CEOs of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis took home nearly $12 million on average in 2009." Those CEOs' combined compensation totaled $598 million, while at the same time, their companies eliminated 531,363 jobs despite reporting a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009.
[A]fter adjusting for inflation, CEO pay in 2009 more than doubled the CEO pay average for the decade of the 1990s, more than quadrupled the CEO pay average for the 1980s, and ran approximately eight times the CEO average for all the decades of the mid-20th century.
American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s."
One example:
"American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault took home the highest 2009 pay, $16.8 million, a sum that included a $5 million cash bonus. American Express has laid off 4,000 employees since receiving $3.39 billion in TARP funding."
You're welcome......asshole.
The only trickle down we get out of these guys is when they make it rain at the local strip club.
Or he may be reactionary. In my recollection, that used to be the tax rate back in the 1950s and 1960s for top wage earners. Ironically enough, those were booming times economically.
I like it!!!!!!
You know, you're a visionary. A man ahead of his time.
Those bastards will not be happy until there is no middle class! What next, six day workweeks and maybe one week of vacation a year, or will everyone be put on contract with no benefits? I'd bet those greedy CEOs are no smarter than half the people who work for them. The CEOs and directors are all part of an incestuous club and they take care their own; to hell with everyone else.
Here’s one solution. Slap about a 90% top marginal rate on these greedy SOBs. Then maybe they’ll put that money back into their companies and hire people instead of stuffing it in their pockets.
I hate this situation. Those guys, and the markets that support them, simply use harmful "rules" for judging these things. It's as if what's up is down, and what's down is up.
When a company lays off a lot of people, their stock frequently goes up -- as if that's good management, they're doing the right thing. But it's really the opposite of that: they're doing a bad thing, mostly likely due to bad management. It's no wonder we get all frustrated. It makes no sense.
One problem is, the business schools and the people who attend them -- aspiring CEO a**es -- set the rules. They establish pay scales, determining which jobs are most important via how much the incumbent is paid. The people who fill positions have no say.
They, the corporations, want serfs, somebody who'll dry up and blow away they day after they are laid off or retire.
In this country, we bow down to business -- and that's a major reason the middle class keeps getting smaller, the poor get poorer, and the rich -- well, we know what's happening for them.
For the life of me I can't see HOW the directors can justify these types of salaries. The word preposterous is completely inadequate.
Hewlett Packard giving their outgoing CEO a $40 Million going away present is so outrageous, who negotiated a contract like that?
And you're right. I, like many Americans are making less than I did ten years ago. My wife hasn't gotten a raise in 15 years.
What I don't know is how do we fix this? If the stockholders will not hold the directors responsible for this irresponsible action, we are up a creek. You obviously can't count on these greedy executives to turn down the money on "ethical" reasons. Lee Iaccoca they are NOT!
Bet they sleep really well at night, too.