Comments on: Should the Government Decide Your Salary?

All The Bloviating Over Exec Pay Is Nothing More Than Government Interference In Private Contracts

[price53]

Congress and Senators and other elected Goverment officials
should have income capps.

They should have to count every benefit such as cel phones, office supplies, trips, and anything paid by Taxes or special interest as thier income. Let them itimize thing son thier income tax return just like we citizens must do.

No special Retirement plans, they should contribute to Social Security and Medicare and private retirement plans like we citizens must do.

They should not have a different Health Plan if they think Nationialized Health Plans is good for us then let them deal with it also..

I will vote and encourage others to vote out officials who put themselves above the citizens who elected them.
.

[fctex]

first execs, ultimately the small guy. all part of BO's marxist agenda and blindly supported by the leftist democrats who don't understand democracy or the free market system - strike that, they probably do understand and are on the same page as BO and his friends. how much personal liberty has been lost in the past four months!!!!

[lloydbest1]

I personally do not care how well a CEO does his or her job. A compensation package that is valued at more than 25 or 30 times that of a minimum wage earner is an outrage.

According to the Associated press the top ten income earners are :
1. Aubrey McClendon (Chesapeake Energy - CHK): $112.5 million
2. Sanjay Jha (Motorola - MOT): $104.4 million
3. Robert Iger (Walt Disney - DIS): $51.1 million
4. Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs - GS): $42.9 million
5. Kenneth Chenault (American Express - AXP): $42.9 million
6. Vikram Pandit (Citigroup - C): $38.2 million
7. Steven Farris (Apache Corp - APA): $37.2 million
8. Louis Camilleri (Philip Morris International - PM): $36.9 million
9. Kevin Johnson (Juniper Networks - JNPR): $36.1 million
10. Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase - JPM): $35.7 million

Numbers 2, 3, 4, 6,7,9, and 10 lost money in 2008 and we know what happened to Goldman Sacs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. Seven of the top ten; through a combination of fiscal irresponsibility, poor business choices, risky investing and a tanking economy were failures. If I had performed as poorly as these guys did, I would have beed sacked without references.
But the point is even if these folks DID do an outstanding job, earned double digit net profits and sent shareholder value through the roof, that kind of compensation is ridiculous. Even God doesn't deserve that kind of loot.
Take the lowest paid dude on that list. Mr. Dimon got a little under $36 million for his "efforts". A full time worker at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour (starting July) will earn about $15000. Diamon gets 2400 times that amount. That's inexcusable - regardless of merit! Whether he deserves that much over mandated minimum is irrelevant, if he and anyone else have lifestyles that require incomes more than about 30 times minimum wage from all sources (that's $450000, a pretty hefty salary by any reasonable standard) then they have serious problems with their values.
Lest you get the impression that I am anti wealth, think again! People who do exemplary work, are ambitious, innovative, clever, focused or any combination of should get a little more than the rest of us. I don't begrudge a millionaire who earns his booty, but, at the same time I definitely think we are seeing an otherwise good system of reward and recognition run amok. That HAS to stop.

[joeovercoat]

"I've already explained that they already have enough remedies for dealing with poor executives." Really?!?! To the average Joe, including me, it in plainly apparent that those remedies are grossly ineffective. Where is the transparency that would inform stockholders that they are paying for, and where is the transparency that would empower stockholders to do something about it? Time & time again we have seen where stockholder revolts lead nowhere, with few exceptions (which generally seem to be offset by golden parachutes anyway). And for years those of us that create things have watched the people that do nothing but sell what we create haul in truckloads of money, while our pay degenerates. How does that not enter into the equation of executive pay?

Please CBS, set me straight on the facts, so all the stockholders can learn by example of how to manage how our investment in public companies is spent. Otherwise, please explain why you have published yet another lame justification for exorbitant executive pay for publicly-held companies: perhaps there is a conflict of interest here?

And how is it that this 'article' is entitled "Should the Govt decide your salary?" Was this written exclusively for the aid and comfort of overpaid execs? Or are you so certain of your 'slippery slope' argument that you simply put it in the title?

BTW - pay rates for staff for large swaths of the military-industrial complex are routinely established by negotiations with Government representatives, so the camel has had its nose under the tent for a long time: those rates are not individualized, so the business has some latitude, but the defacto effect is that the possible range or the rate of pay for staff working on Govt contracts is established in negotiations with the Government. <shrug>

[stephand]

All I am saying is that there should be a mechanism whereby the small investor, and all investors, can make a statement as to the compensation schedule and methods used by a corporation which he is invested in. ----Posted by arkieguy.

There are two ways you can do this:
- As a shareholder, you can nominate and vote for new board members.
- Sell your shares and buy shares in a company that is better managed.

Seems like the solution is already there. It might not always work out the way you want, but that's how democracy works.

If congress wants more oversight into the current democratic system, then I think we should also give business leaders more power to oversee congress. That way, when Congress screw up the economy, the business leaders can hold them accountable. We will have good checks and balances this way...

[Iggy103]

If you think this has all started under a "Democratic" admin, you are DELUSIONAL!!!!!!

[veils-2009]

The facts are misconstrued. What is being proposed is that for the companies that the US has bailed out, congress wants oversight on executive pay and bonuses. This something any prudent shareholder demands.

Laws are being worked out so that shareholders of companies are given greater control over these aspects.

[arkieguy]

I am not in favor of the government settting pay scales for private industry, excecutive or otherwise. However, having said that, it is apparent that the present system of setting compensation for executives in large public corporations is not working. Except for the benefit of the executives and their boards, who are amply rewarded with salaries and perks for minimal performance for most board directors.
Have you ever noticed how many directors are on the boards of multiple corporations? It seems as if the title of "director" is an award that has been designated for public service, not a title that designates that the recipient really knows about the business of the corporation and can contribute and make decisions to protect the stockholders. It has become more or less an honorary position awarded by the corporation.
Let's forget about the various pension funds etc that have their funds invested in publicly owned corporations. They are suppposedly large enough and have the funds to hire their own managers to protect themselves from greedy corporate CEOs. I doubt that this is true though because they are too far removed from the action.
Let's think about the small, individual investor trying to invest his personal money to try to salt away enough for a rainy day or retirement. Even if he disagrees with the compensation schedule ot X corporation, what can he do about it if he does? There is no mechanism set up for him have some input. Yes, he can sell the stock. And go through an arduous process of replacing it, and probably paying a commission to buy into another corporation.
All I am saying is that there should be a mechanism whereby the small investor, and all investors, can make a statement as to the compensation schedule and methods used by a corporation which he is invested in.

[iDragon13]

The conservatives keep saying that only the free market system works and that socialism will destroy this country. But hang on a minute, isn't is capitalism that has destroyed this country? We don't have a socialist economy so you can't logically blame socialism for our problems. We have only tried capitalism and so capitilism is to blame.

[zpolitic]

This article is utter garbage! This is the same old tune: the private sector is more efficient than the government; government interference in the market place is bad; etc. It was the removal of New Deal oversight that led to the disaster that we are living through. Starting with Reagan: usury laws repealed (see massive credit card debt), mortgage laws repealed (see S&L crisis and our current housing crisis), the repeal of Glass/Steagal and the Commodity Futures Trading Act led to the credit default swaps; in 2005 Bush repealed laws that governed participation and transparency in oil futures (see $4.00/gal gas). With respect to executive pay, only in this country is executive pay 400 to 600% higher than the average salary (it?s about 20 to 30% in the rest of the world). These people are stealing money from their stockholders that should either be reinvested in the company or given as dividends. Supply-side thinking must go!

[jmitchell724]

The sooner executive pay is a contradiction in terms, the better off we'll make the world in the process! (See the book "Unfit To Manage" by Ernest Lieberman for details! Also see the book "Nickel & Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, especially the Evaluation chapter, for ADDITIONAL details!)

[deep_throat]

Spreading fear yet again. Be very afraid.. Obama is going to control YOUR pay,

This guy is making the giant leap from freewheeling, thieving executives who make 30 million dollars a year to us common folk.

Come on. We aren't the ones who ****** up our corporations and then went begging to the government for a bailout. It was these 30-million-a-year executives. And, if they receive government assistance, we sure as he11 will watch what they get paid from our tax money.

Welfare recipients and people on unemployment get more scrutiny than what these executives are getting away with.

[deep_throat]

The person who wrote this article is a moron.

Do not read it.

I am not surprised this guy is the senior editor of "The New Ledger" which is an online Nation Review wannabe full of anti-Obama/anti-Democrat opinions disguised as seemingly well-reasoned articles.

Mr. Editor here wants these companies to get the taxpayer money to avoid financial ruin but does not want the control on the very executives that were the cause of the ruin.

He is going back to the tired, old argument that the capitalists market in general and the board of directors will take care of any malfeasance on part of the executives. Well. that didn't work too well in the past. Did it? If it had, we wouldn't even be talking about this,

Maintaining status quo is not an option. Call it revenge or an increased governance of people handling our tax money. Something needed to change and it will.

I, for one, welcome these pay controls wholeheartedly. Pay the executives well AFTER they have proven themselves.

[superdem1]

I don't know how anyone, including this author, can say that the private sector pay scales "work well" - they overpay their executives by grotesque amounts, even in times when the companies are going down in flames - and the line workers get royally screwed. There is absolutely no loyalty to a company when the workers all know they are getting peanuts - or worse, laid off - while the fat cats roll out to their homes at the beach. When yearly reviews come around, and the workers are told how hard things are, and how the pay scales and allotted monies demand limited raises, the benefits have to be cut - blah blah blah - then they dance off to their Lexus and cruise to the golf course. Any idiot can see that capitalism has failed America miserably, it is insanity to devote political patriotism to such unfair, arbitrary, and destructive economic policies. It is nonsense to think unfettered wealth brings out the best productivity in an elite ownership class, while crumbs and gruel are dished out to the peasant workers. Capitalism USED to mean competition among producers, resulting in the best product at the cheapest cost, with profits coming from volume sales. That is not the model we see today.

[gdw666]

Do any of you really think that when the current push for big government get's the "camel's nose" of pay control under the tent that they will not find a way to extend the 'emergency' to your piece of the world.

Ever hear of a 'pay czar' controlling the congressional salaries based on performance?

[cyberus-2009]

Love the headline for this .. talk about misrepresentation

[gdw666]

"Labor prices are already controlled.
International labor cant even cross borders
but trade can ??"

Maybe in your world labor can't cross. Everywhere else however, yes they can.

[marine1957]

Someone (the government) needs to enact laws to make it a punishable crime for management to defraud company employees of their earned wages, all for the purpose of paying the CEO and other big shots millions of dollars per year - therein financially raping the company of its viability.

An accountant can defraud a bank to gain $50,000 for himself and be sentenced to 30 years in prison, but it is legal for a CEO to defraud employees to gain $100,000,000 for himself?

A pharmaceutical company can defraud the medical industry by exaggerating the benefits of a drug in order to gain a $billion$ $dollars$ in sales for themselves and the FDA does nothing?

Do I see something wrong with this picture of the American marketplace?

What people won't do for money.

It's a crying shame.

[stephand]

There are 2 issues here. 1) Companies that receive money from the government - I don't know why the government is helping them in the first place, but these CEOs deserve having their pay controlled by the government. 2) Compensation for executives of other public companies - The government has no role there. The board represents the shareholders and control the compensation.

[gold_standard]

The government can decide your pay and decide what job you do. That would allow them to set fair prices on goods and services and allocate resources to ensure that everyone lives the good life. The government can run the economy and the entire nation to make us happy, healthy, and wealthy. A golden age of utopia is within our grasp.

The government can do all of this, and we already have a name for it--SOCIALISM!