This is an op-ed I wrote on corporate greed. It has been published in the Arizona Daily Star and will be sent to several more major newspapers. If you have any comments my e-mail is at the end.
We hear about many reasons why prices of gas, groceries and insurance are high, but the media never mentions the one plague that costs billions. Corporate greed affects every sector of our economy, drives prices up, and the tab is picked up by—you the consumer.
Have your insurance premiums been raised? Well, they have to pay their CEOs. State Farm’s boss made $24.4 million last year. That’s $470,000 a week! Traveler’s CEO, Allan Schnitzer pulled down $20.8 million and Allstate’s Thomas Wilson had to scrape by on $18.9 million.
But the guy who really ripped off his policy holders was Tony Nicely, the Executive Chairman of GEICO. In 2020 he retired with a “golden parachute” worth, get this…$77 million. That is 1,100 times more than our teachers make.
This not capitalism, this is corporate greed!!
In December, 2022, CNN reported that Wells Fargo had been ordered to pay $3.7 billion for “a range” of illegal activity over several years. The crimes notwithstanding, in 2023, they raised CEO Charles Scharf’s salary from $24.5 to $29 million a year! While Charley is stuffing $550,000 a week into his pockets, the bank’s CDs pay a whopping 4 percent.
Oil companies might be called the Kings of Greed! As your gas prices go up, according to an August, 2023, article in Fortune magazine, we are now subsiding the fossil fuel industry $1.3 trillion dollars a year. And, in Feb 2, 2023, Shell reported a nearly $40 billion profit for last year. Chevron reported full-year 2022 earnings of $35.5 billion. Subsidizing the oil companies, to the tune of 1.3 Trillion could be the dumbest government policy in the history of the world! (CEO of Exxon/Mobil made $33 million.)
Greed hits the grocery stores too. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen made $19 Mil. in 2022. Three Kroger vice-presidents make $6.5 million a year. The fourth VP only gets starvation wages—$5 mil. annually But according to Kroger grocery prices are up due to inflation. Yeah, right!
Corporate greed is Pfizer tripling the price of Paxlovid to $1,390 a dose while it made over $58.5 billion in profits last year. It also gave its CEO, Albert Bourla, $33 million in compensation — a 36% pay raise. Greed, pure and simple!
In 2022 CEO pay was 344 times higher than the average working stiff. In my opinion nobody earns and nobody deserves these exorbitant salaries. These overpaid prima-donnas get these salaries because, their boards of directors, who approve the salaries are waiting their turn to embrace the golden goose. Are they about to oppose these wages, and strangle the golden goose? No way, Jose!
Unfortunately, greed is not illegal, but it costs us a hell of a lot of money.
Jeff Egerton is an author from Tucson, AZ. He can be reached at desertauthor@yahoo.com
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