Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
3 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,819 Year: 3,076/9,624 Month: 921/1,588 Week: 104/223 Day: 2/13 Hour: 1/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Executive Salaries and Corn Flakes
Grizz
Member (Idle past 5471 days)
Posts: 318
Joined: 06-08-2007


Message 16 of 19 (462402)
04-02-2008 9:49 PM
Reply to: Message 15 by Rahvin
04-02-2008 8:56 PM


Re: Cap'n Crunch
My sole point in this thread is that the gap in income between CEOs and employees is detrimental to the system in the long run. one solution to just that one facet of income gaps is a cap on CEO salaries, and the mors reasonable way to cap those salaries as I see it is to utilize a percentage of the average employee's salary to set the cap. This is not about communism, it's not about global poverty, it has nothing to do with how priveledged the first world is in comparison to the third world, it is solely about the difference in income between a CEO and the average employee.
Maybe it's because it's late or I just have zoned out, but I have to admit I don't get it. How is it detrimental to the system in the long-run given that the wealthiest individuals in America are not made up of CEO's but the investors - those who hold majority shares in the corporations themselves(the owners)? These are the indidvuals that hold most of the wealth in the nation, not the CEO of a corporation. These guys could buy a CEO 100 times over. A CEO is simply an officer appointed by the Board of Directors and shareholders to take responsibility for the financial condition of the corporation. Most of them are millionaires. Very few are billionaires.
You are saying this is all about the difference in salary between CEO and employee but you also have to consider the salary of the Board of Directors themselves, the other officers below the CEO, the CFO, the CCO, the head Accountant, the Lead attorney, etc etc. The CEO salary pales in comparison to the total of all these individuals together. You will have to lower their salaries as well.
We can debate back and forth but there are no simple and practical solutions to income disparity. Adjusting the salary of a CEO is not going to do much of anything except offer a feel-good measure to fool people into believing the income gap between rich and poor has actually decreased. Most of the profit and wealth in America will still reside with the majority shareholders themselves. There are only so many CEO's and most are millionaires, not the billionaire investors who hold large positions. The Obsession with playing with CEO salaries to bring about ay real change in the actual income dispairty that exists is puzzling.
It's compeltely feasible without affecting the bottom line at all, and it also has the added benefit of increasing employee morale and production. Don't let those idiotic HR drones fool you - the best way to make an emloyee happy is not to make them feel important, but rather to compensate him appropriately. When the employees are able to feel a real benefit from improving profits instead of all of that money being given to a single individual, they will be far happeier and better motivated.
Lowering the salary of the bank employee who has the title of CEO will not increase the salary of the rank and file. As stated yourself, if you do increase the salary to be a percentage of the CEO based on a pre-determined calculation, the result is not likely going to be a windfall that shoots people into different tax brackets. Would it immediately increase morale? yes. Will it increase production? Will employees suddenly feel the desire to work twice as hard and twice as fast? I don't think so.
You can hardly decry human greed when human greed is the very basis of the capitalist system.
But that's the point - we are all greedy. The desire to want more is what motivates us all - corporation as well as individual. We simply just tend to look at the wealthy as the cause of all the ills. Our greed as consumers to obtain things we don't need is what motivates the entire system and keeps it alive. In this sense, we are just as guilty as those who control the production. That was the whole point of my diversion. As I said, if you really want to make a difference, everyone STOP being greedy and hoarding things we do not need. We are ALL greedy. Those in glass houses .....
Edited by Grizz, : No reason given.
Edited by Grizz, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 15 by Rahvin, posted 04-02-2008 8:56 PM Rahvin has not replied

  
Grizz
Member (Idle past 5471 days)
Posts: 318
Joined: 06-08-2007


Message 17 of 19 (462404)
04-02-2008 10:36 PM
Reply to: Message 15 by Rahvin
04-02-2008 8:56 PM


Re: Cap'n Crunch
You arent making sense. This isnt about charity. This is about the insane gap in income between a CEO and the average worker. I'm not talking about anything other than CEO and employee salaries here, Grizz. I don't see how global poverty factors into that except at the barest fringe.
Well, the reason I brought the whole diversion up was not to go off topic. I suspect(but could be wrong) that the beef for many is not really about disparity as a universal injustice causing social ills in the lower tiers - it's more personal than that. e.g. 'I do not have all the things I want and I see people who do and it's not fair.'
We are spoiled here in the West. That is a fact. As I said, the poor in America would be considered filthy rich by someone in an undeveloped third-world nation. The disparity between the Poor in America and the Poor in Ethiopia would be considered vast. Poor and rich are relative. There are income gaps everywhere.
That was the whole point of the latter portion of the thread.
To everyone calling for reductions in CEO salaries - Be honest now - if you were one of the CEO's making $10M a year, would you offer to lower your salary 25% to 'make things right', just out of the principle of wanting a more equitable payroll?
Honestly, I would have to admit my answer is no. If that is what someone on the board of directors believed my market value was, I wouldn't exactly say no or argue that I cannot accept it out of a deeply held principle. I would take it. I would also not think it correct if someone were to tell me I could not accept such a salary that was offered to me in exchange for my services simply because there are those who are paid much less.
I understand this argument is pointless in terms of recognizing and wanting to change an injustice or inequity. I am simply just presenting the question to inquire into what the real motive is for the angst. Is it really justice or jealousy?
I suspect for most of us, if we suddenly won the lottery, mending the income gap would be the last things on our mind. Just 'keeping it real', as they say.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 15 by Rahvin, posted 04-02-2008 8:56 PM Rahvin has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 18 by Rrhain, posted 04-04-2008 4:35 AM Grizz has not replied

  
Rrhain
Member
Posts: 6351
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Joined: 05-03-2003


Message 18 of 19 (462485)
04-04-2008 4:35 AM
Reply to: Message 17 by Grizz
04-02-2008 10:36 PM


Re: Cap'n Crunch
Grizz writes:
quote:
To everyone calling for reductions in CEO salaries - Be honest now - if you were one of the CEO's making $10M a year, would you offer to lower your salary 25% to 'make things right', just out of the principle of wanting a more equitable payroll?
Of course. Why on earth wouldn't I? There comes a point where you have all the money you really need. Were I to become extremely wealthy, my goal would be to give it away.

Rrhain

Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 17 by Grizz, posted 04-02-2008 10:36 PM Grizz has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 19 by molbiogirl, posted 04-04-2008 12:33 PM Rrhain has not replied

  
molbiogirl
Member (Idle past 2642 days)
Posts: 1909
From: MO
Joined: 06-06-2007


Message 19 of 19 (462510)
04-04-2008 12:33 PM
Reply to: Message 18 by Rrhain
04-04-2008 4:35 AM


Re: Cap'n Crunch
Of course. Why on earth wouldn't I? There comes a point where you have all the money you really need. Were I to become extremely wealthy, my goal would be to give it away.
On a personal note. When my parents died, I inherited a bit of money. Nothing even remotely approaching "wealthy" ... the low 5 figures.
The minute the $$$ hit my account, I called my best friend and said, "How much would it take to get you debt-free?" (We were both in our mid 20s and struggling). I wired the money that day.
Money is nothing but a way to help people.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 18 by Rrhain, posted 04-04-2008 4:35 AM Rrhain has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024