First Student Loans and now Mortgages

[PrincessFiona]

Interesting point, Marissa. Unfortunately, in the recent past, ceo's have maintained their salaries by cutting employee wages and benefits.

[corn poffi]

I have a hard time accepting that ANYBODY deserves to make $1 million a year.

[SoonerTexan]

I have a hard time accepting that ANYBODY deserves to make $1 million a year.

I wouldn't take their jobs for 1 million a year

[Pollyanna]

I wouldn't take their jobs for 1 million a year

Heehee, me either. I'd need WAY more than that.

I also completely agree with you Marissa.

[SuzySunshine]

I agree that businesses are not the answer and I agree that MOST (not all) CEO's deserve what they are paid.

The personal tax code has to be re-written/re-structured but as long as politicians are in charge of that it will never happen in the way it should because they are to much about the next election and not what is right regardless of their party.

[Vanquisher]

In 1970, CEO salary and bonus packages were typically about $700,000 - 25 times the average production worker salary; by 2000, CEO salaries had jumped to almost $2.2 million on average, 90 times the average salary of a worker, according to a 2004 study on CEO pay by Kevin J. Murphy and Jan Zabojnik. Toss in stock options and other benefits, and the salary of a CEO is nearly 500 times the average worker salary, the study says.

Yeah, okay, if CEO's were making 1 mil/year. I might get that logic. Maybe. No, not so much. I don't think CEO's work 500 times harder than their employees. I just don't. Small business owners, on the other hand, employ a HUGE percentage of the nation's workforce and taxes and other costs (insurance) for them are astronomical.

Small businesses:

Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
Employ just over half of all private sector employees.
Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.

Here is the top 20 paid CEO's for one year (2007) in millions. I think I'd pretty much do anything for a year for more than $50 million dollars. Maybe that's just me.


1Lawrence J Ellison Oracle 192.922
Frederic M Poses Trane 127.103
Aubrey K McClendon Chesapeake Energy 116.894
Angelo R Mozilo Countrywide Financial 102.845
Howard D Schultz Starbucks 98.606
Nabeel Gareeb MEMC Electronic Mats 79.567
Daniel P Amos Aflac 75.168
Lloyd C Blankfein Goldman Sachs Group 73.729
Richard D Fairbank Capital One Financial 73.1710
Bob R Simpson XTO Energy 72.2711
Richard S Fuld Jr Lehman Bros Holdings 71.9012
Steven Roth Vornado Realty 71.8513
Marijn E Dekkers Thermo Fisher 69.0014
Steven A Burd Safeway 67.1715
Gregg L Engles Dean Foods 66.0816
Nicholas D Chabraja General Dynamics 60.2617
Leslie H Wexner Limited Brands 56.0618
David C Novak Yum Brands 54.9119
John T Chambers Cisco Systems 54.7720
William R Berkley WR Berkley 54.60

[PrincessFiona]

How do we decide who is worth what income? Ceo's Run businesses. Ok. How about police officers, firefighters, military, teachers .... Are they as important?

[corn poffi]

In my opinion, they're more important than CEOs. But then it's obviously not feasible to pay them accordingly!

(Note: My experience in the business world is limited, since I'm a bitter, non-profit worker Also, my knowledge of CEOs is based on the rich kids I grew up with. Out of the CEO parents, only one had actually worked for it, and the other three inherited the title, so I have a hard time believing that they all "earn" their salaries. Plus the CEOs made it to more school events than my workaholic public servant parents did. But, of course, they were CEOs for much smaller companies!)

[SuzySunshine]

The problem with comparing CEO's to anything is that businesses can spend their profits as they see fit - if their board and their shareholders want to pay their CEO's like that then that is their right - when you are talking about public money through taxes its a whole different ball game.

[corn poffi]

Very true. What a private person makes really shouldn't be anybody's business. Although it still makes me angry.

And really, it doesn't have much to do with the original post. Sorry for getting so off-track! It's been one of those days where I just wanted to complain about something.

[PrincessFiona]

Sorry for getting so off-track! It's been one of those days where I just wanted to complain about something.

I believe you just defined the birth of the debate forums. Heck, you should see the things that turn into debates around here on a bad day!

Hope your day gets better!

Kris

[SoonerTexan]

The problem with comparing CEO's to anything is that businesses can spend their profits as they see fit - if their board and their shareholders want to pay their CEO's like that then that is their right

True...it's definitely abused and some salaries are outrageous--but it's not like anyone forces companies to pay them that much. They pay for the talent, not amount of work. A CEO may not do 500x times the actual "hourly work" of an employee, but they certainly have 500+ times the impact on the organization as a whole, as well as way more than 500x the blame if something goes wrong. Sarbanes-Oxley means the overpaid head honchos have to sign their name and take the personal blame for the financial statements of billion dollar companies. A CEO can run a company into the ground (and cause devastating financial impact to those who invested in the company and those who lose their jobs) or do the same amount of good. If someone is being paid that much--they are for a reason. CEOs get ousted all the time if they suck. As for stock options...I'm all for it. I want them to be personally invested in the outcome of the company I'm working for/investing in.

Aubrey McClendon is on that list...he built Chesapeake Energy up from nothing and brought a huge amount of jobs to the OKC area. It's also a great company to work for--if we had to stay in OKC I would have jumped for the chance to work there. Really values his employees.

Another thing about "big bad evil corporations"--I hate the fact that the media goes nuts when they make huge profits. Sure--I can see how it looks bad when oil companies, etc. do, but it is not like every bit of those $$$ goes into a CEO's pocket. Most is re-invested in the company so it can grow. My company does "profit sharing" as an incentive (you can see my bias).

Sure...corporations and CEO certainly don't need to be pitied most of the time, but they really aren't as "evil" as the media/many people make them out to be. I love it when people talk about "Corporate Greed" and then invest in those same companies.

[houseelf]

I have to add that the entire mortgage interest deduction debate is hypothetical. The real estate lobby is too strong. Further, no elected official will want to be responsible for getting rid of this widely popular tax deduction amongst his or her constituents. This past fall Time magazine featured an article about ways to reduce the deficit. Although the mortgage interest tax deduction appears that its usefulness had run its course, the likelihood of its demise was deemed improbable.

[reciprocity]

Personally I view being "rich" or "wealthy" as being more about net worth than about income.

That said, I do think that $250k a year is a lot of money

[Momo]

personally i view being "rich" or "wealthy" as being more about net worth than about income.

That said, i do think that $250k a year is a lot of money

ita!