Check out these incredible CEO salaries! Can you be paid "too much"?

[Selatius]

The reason why I ask is that Forbes recently put up the list of highest paid CEOs in the US. At the top of the list is Terry S. Semel. His total compensation for 2004 was $230,600,000. That is almost a quarter of a billion!

Is this how we went society to be? Is this how it should be? Is it indeed possible for somebody to be paid "too much"? How does this square with the fact that there are 45,000,000 in the US who are so poor that they cannot afford health care coverage? The cutbacks in public education and public health care? The tax cuts for the very richest in this country? (Do these people even deserve tax cuts to begin with?) How about the fact that workers got an across-the-board pay-cut because their wages didn't keep up with inflation?

Here is the top 10:

1. Terry S. Semel Yahoo! (YHOO) $230.6
2. Barry Diller IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) $156.2
3. William W. McGuire UnitedHealth Group (UNH) $124.8
4. Howard Solomon Forest Labs (FRX) $92.1
5. George David United Technologies (UTX) $88.7
6. Lew Frankfort Coach (COH) $86.5
7. Edwin M. Crawford Caremark Rx (CMX) $77.9
8. Ray R. Irani Occidental Petroleum (OXY) $64.1
9. Angelo R. Mozilo Countrywide Financial (CFC) $57.0
10. Richard D. Fairbank Capital One Financial (COF) $56.7

(Yes, those numbers represent millions, not hundreds of thousands)

Check it out here:

http://biz.yahoo.com/special/ceo05.html

This is how society is supposed to be, no? Is this what people accept? Or do people want something better?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. The IDLE rich

There is absolutely NOTHING they could have done to EARN this income..it's pure market manipulation

[JanMichael]

2. No, there's no such thing as "TOO MUCH"!

At least according to some of the trolls that will grace your thread:-)

[otohara]

3. There Are Not Enough Hours In A Day

to justify salaries like this.

It's sickening and what's more sickening...these people probably think they deserve more. They probably expense every cup of coffee purchased at the airport when they travel. My over-paid boss did.

[Coventina]

4. There is no reason for anyone to make over $1,000,000 a year

I think there should be a 100% income tax of anything over that.

[Bouncy Ball]

12. I say cap it even lower than that.

What's wrong with $500,000 or even $250,000 or $200,000. I mean, seriously, like I said to Fenris below, if you can't live on that, you need to totally re-examine your life.

[tallahasseedem]

5. Dont get me started with CEOs

considering my Husband and I lost everything we had in retirement thanks to Bernie Ebbers.

[ikojo]

6. Why is it that people the world over accept the notion of

a minimum wage but when a maximum wage is proposed (as in Ben and Jerry paying the execs no more than ten times what the lowest paid employee is paid. Of course this is when Ben & Jerry owned the company) people get all discombobulated.

[Coventina]

9. It's called "self-delusion". They think they'll get there someday

:eyes:

[JanMichael]

25. I've posed this question of Maximum Income/Wealth before

Here.

It's a concept that some small thinking people just can't accept.

EDIT: What galls me is that many feel perfectly comfy with an unelected Plutocracy...While people live on the streets, millions have shitty healthcare or none to speak of, and we (Via the "Congress" ie. Tool of the Rich) legislate "minimum wages"...

[Fenris]

7. Look how horrible the economy is treating our CEOs!

:eyes:

Sometimes I rather like the idea of a maximum wage. If you're making nearly a quarter of a billion dollars every year and others can barely stay above the poverty level or don't come close to the poverty level, there is something seriously wrong with the system.

[Bouncy Ball]

11. I'm reading Nickel and Dimed

:thumbsup:

Maximum wage, yes. Set it up there at about $200,000. If someone can't live on that, they have SERIOUS problems.

[Fenris]

13. Especially in a double-income household.

There's just no excuse.

Even if it wasn't that radical...I mean, imagine if the ceiling was set at $1 million? Surely you can live a luxurious existence on that?

[Bouncy Ball]

28. Honest to God, I don't see why it would EVER have to

be more than half that ($500K).

I mean unless a gallon of milk was $200 or something.

:shrug:

[B Calm]

8. Have you ever wondered how many years you would have to

work to earn what your CEO makes in one year?

www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/ceou/

[B Calm]

19. Gee, I only have to work 239 years to make what my CEO made

last year..

[Bouncy Ball]

10. Honestly?

I'd be embarrassed to make that much money. I really would. And looking around at cleaning people and people on the street would kill me.

I mean, just because a person has more education doesn't mean they are a BETTER person inside.

[whistle]

14. What did these men pay in 2004 income taxes

[EVDebs]

15. Bush's Base. The "Top Heavy" Economy is teetering as we speak

Top Heavy by Edward Wolff

Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips

and see the Facts and Figures on Inequality at
http://www.inequality.org/facts2.html

"You can have great wealth or democracy, but you cannot have both"--
Louis Brandeis

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. on wealth

There's an old Sufi story that goes something like this:

A wandering dervish came to town and spoke with such wisdom and compassion that the richest merchant in town came up to him and said, "Please take this purse as a token of my respect and esteem."

The dervish looked at the purse and said, "It is against faith to take money from a poor man."

"But I'm rich! The richest man in town!" the merchant cried.

The dervish looked at him. "You have more purses like this at home?"

"Yes!" the merchant cried.

"Do you wish you had more?" asked the dervish.

"Of course! That is why I work every day-to get more and more," the merchant said.

The dervish smiled as he put on his patched cloak. "The truly wealthy man is one who has no desires for more. I cannot accept your gift, because you are a poor man."

[htuttle]

17. What the HELL could the head of Yahoo! do that's worth $230 million/year?

Yahoo is basically a WEBSITE! Huge chunks of it are automatically generated. Did Terry Semel do any HTML coding? No. Any technical work at all? No. Did he go sell ads? No.

What the hell would the head of Yahoo! do? 'Set the direction'? "Hey guys, we should add a cooking section -- why don't you go do that." and bling! Another $230 mil?

All I can say is that Yahoo's stockholders are idiots for putting up with it.

[ultraist]

18. Those salaries don't include bonuses and other perks!

It's due time to close the tax loop holes for the ultra wealthy and increase the tax rate on the upper end. IMO, any income over 500k should be taxed at 50% or more. Over 1 M, it should up in the 65% range.

I disagree with caps on salaries and don't think it flies in a free market, but I'm all for revamping the tax system to take the burden off of the middle and lower classes. Heavier taxes on higher incomes is, in effect, a way to cap salaries.

[quinnox]

20. this is a consequence of American capitalism

if the market will bear these kinds of salaries then it will.

Same with the NBA or other sports stars.

They make millions of dollars for being able to put a ball in a basket.

Only way to change it would be if the ones paying the salaries decided to lower them.

I don't agree with capping salaries, but I am for higher taxes on wealth.

If they make it and enjoy this type of money then they should be able to share it with the country in the form of higher taxes.

[applegrove]

21. Can you organize them into piles of CEOs who are stockholder (they

started the thing) vs. CEOs who just got parachuted in and make the big bucks?

[Speck Tater]

22. Come the big crash and...

they will be picking cabbages for ten cents a day just like the rest of us.

[Jacobin]

23. The economic theory that supports paying CEOs a lot of money

is that they produce a lot of return for their shareholders. It's completely flawed, because the board of directors sets their salaries and the CEO usually ends up more or less picking the Board, instead of the shareholders who are too diffuse to take a stand and stop the pilfering of zillions. Often times a company does terribly and they still get bazillions in salary.

If the shareholders had more direct input, this would not be going on, which blows the whole theory that they are doing the shareholder's work and being rewarded by the shareholders.

Warren Buffett has written and spoken about this problem a lot....the disconnect between shareholders and CEOs

[Disturbed]

26. According to our Glorious Leader..

Taxing the wealthy does not work because they hire lawyers and tax consultants that figure out ways to avoid taxes. I had the qoute but cannot find it now, damnit.

[Bryn]

24. I remember when I worked for a bank in 1980 in Orlando

where average salary for bank employees was 12,000 per year while CEOs were making $300,000. Back then we thought they were making too much and we too little, under poverty line .. We thought it was highly unfair because they were making that much money on our backs while they acted like every hour was a Happy Hour! System needs to be changed! :grr:

[City Lights]

27. This makes me sick.

:wow:

I'm speechless.