Another Marie Antoinette Moment - NYTimes

[applegrove]

January 2, 2006
Editorial
Another Marie Antoinette Moment

"There is no shortage of numbers and studies detailing the widening gap between what American companies pay workers and the millions of dollars those same companies pay top executives. But just in case anyone hasn't been paying attention, here enters David Brooks, chief executive of the bulletproof vest manufacturer DHB Industries Inc., to provide a fuller picture.

....SNIP

The same report, by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning research center, and United for a Fair Economy, a group seeking to narrow the gap between rich and poor, found that in 2004 the ratio of C.E.O. pay to worker pay at large companies had ballooned to 431 to 1. If the minimum wage had advanced at the same rate as chief executive compensation since 1990, America's bottom-of-the-barrel working poor would be enjoying salad days, with legal wages at $23.03 an hour instead of $5.15.

In the go-go days of the Internet bubble, these kinds of statistics were easy to ignore because it felt as if anyone could be the next millionaire and surely the rising tide would lift all boats. Now corporate profits are being wrung in large part from cost cutting like reductions to worker health care and retirement, layoffs and plant closings.

It would be nice to see corporate America put more effort - and money - into quality control and fair living wages for workers and less into exorbitant pay packages and bonuses for corporate chieftains. We remain hopeful, although we can't help but think that while the average American will read about Mr. Brooks's war-windfall party at the Rainbow Room and feel queasy, someone in the ranks of the super-rich might take it as a challenge and check to see if the Taj Mahal is available for birthday parties."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/opinion/02mon2.html?pagewanted=print

[Eric J in MN]

1. Compensation for exectutives at publicly traded companies

should be limited by law to a million/year.

If that is too little for current CEOs, others will accept it and do as good a job or better.

[applegrove]

2. They are robbing the owners of corporations blind. They outsource,

make a profit, get a bonus and then the year is over.

Something has to change.

My dream is that everyone ends up shopping at costco because they do their workers justice.

[Catshrink]

3. And Costco's CEO limits his salary to $350K

he said "that's enough."

[applegrove]

4. Absolutely. And people work for him forever. And work up the ladder.

[Mr_Spock]

7. That's why I recently bought Costco shares

...and I will buy more in the future. Money where my mouth is :D

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. an amazing quote in there

"surely the rising tide would lift all boats"

how come the paper does not believe that when it comes to the financial section... as they spew out the neocon shit?

[applegrove]

6. Neocons were not in power during the dot com bubble. And some boats

did rise then. Notably the African American Middle class.

But i hear ya. It does sound very neocon. The difference being that now only the boats at the yatch club are rising.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

12. Well, duh, I know that. I mean now.

They toss out all the old supply side crap like it comes from God.

[applegrove]

13. Sorry. Hard to gage on line. n/t

[Straight Shooter]

8. CEO boats are rising mainly because they're throwing workers overboard.

We're such dead weight, toss us to the sharks.

[applegrove]

10. Yup. Amazing if 1/2 of the population participates not in the boom times

in the market how inflation can be held in check even during an oil shock. Also too - you must make sure all the government spending goes on outside the country. So dollars do not compete with dollars.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Is this the same guy who threw the 10 million dollar Bat Mitzvah

for his daughter? I remember reading about that.

[applegrove]

11. Also too - they show CEO salaries going up again. I thought they

had slowed down after the Enron scandal. I guess not! And now some SCOTUS wants judges salaries to rise - I guess so they can participate in the windfall too.

If Noah had only acted the same way...and not included everything in his boat... I wonder...