With executive pay, rich pull away from rest of America

Source: Washington Post

It was the 1970s, and the chief executive of a leading U.S. dairy company, Kenneth J. Douglas, lived the good life. He earned the equivalent of about $1 million today. He and his family moved from a three-bedroom home to a four-bedroom home, about a half-mile away, in River Forest, Ill., an upscale Chicago suburb. He joined a country club. The company gave him a Cadillac. The money was good enough, in fact, that he sometimes turned down raises. He said making too much was bad for morale.

Forty years later, the trappings at the top of Dean Foods, as at most U.S. big companies, are more lavish. The current chief executive, Gregg L. Engles, averages 10 times as much in compensation as Douglas did, or about $10 million in a typical year. He owns a $6 million home in an elite suburb of Dallas and 64 acres near Vail, Colo., an area he frequently visits. He belongs to as many as four golf clubs at a time — two in Texas and two in Colorado. While Douglas’s office sat on the second floor of a milk distribution center, Engles’s stylish new headquarters occupies the top nine floors of a 41-story Dallas office tower. When Engles leaves town, he takes the company’s $10 million Challenger 604 jet, which is largely dedicated to his needs, both business and personal.

The evolution of executive grandeur — from very comfortable to jet-setting — reflects one of the primary reasons that the gap between those with the highest incomes and everyone else is widening.

For years, statistics have depicted growing income disparity in the United States, and it has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression. In 2008, the last year for which data are available, for example, the top 0.1 percent of earners took in more than 10 percent of the personal income in the United States, including capital gains, and the top 1 percent took in more than 20 percent. But economists had little idea who these people were. How many were Wall street financiers? Sports stars? Entrepreneurs? Economists could only speculate, and debates over what is fair stalled. . . .

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-executive-pay-rich-pull-away-from-rest-of-america/2011/06/13/AGKG9jaH_story.html?hpid=z1

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This cannot stand. It simply cannot stand. I will be 60 this year, and with all its faults, the USA had at least a chance at upward mobility. A chance. Now, there is no chance.

What kind of society do you want to live in? The one we are so clearly headed for? This goes beyond politics. Who will speak truth to power?

otherwise, unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime --

which is what you are witnessing now -


The New Deal was the largest stimulus package ever to pass --

it created SOMETHING of economic democracy -- and if you want

democracy you need economic democracy.

That feature of the New Deal is gone -- and what we are left with

is a crime wave by capitalists.

I just opened an email telling me my mcafee was automatic ly renewed. I haven't had mcafee for three years. Thy deducted $95.00 from the credit card number I gave them three years ago!!! Thats a fucking crime:wtf:

I don't do anything with credit cards on the internet -- at all !!!

And I'm thinking of destroying my ATM card --

Will have to use a form to get money out of my checking -- or a check for CASH --

remember those???

Luckily I was able to delete without much trouble but SHEESH

If Engles is making ten timew what Douglass did, he obviously must work ten times harder than Douglass did. And don't you understand what a heavy responsibility it is to be a member in good standing of four different exclusive golf clubs?

What are you, a commie or sompthin?

Heartbroken, but that's at least sompthin.

Not done by a long shot, though.

Trust me, it's entirely possible! 285 times! There's absolutely nothing wrong with this picture!

If that were the case, the housekeeper at the Motel Six down the road would get paid a lot more than you do. (I'm assuming you're not a maid at the Motel Six down the road.)

It's the JOB that pays a certain amount, coupled with the qualifications of the person who fills that job, and I guess job performance (which may or may not involve hours worked...but hard to gauge effort).

It's the same reason we have minimum wage, even when a person has no education and isn't a very good, say, cashier. It's the JOB that pays minimum wage. People might say that Cathy Cashier needs to better herself and move on to a better job, so min. wage isn't necessary. If only Cathy Cashier would better herself. The argument is that Cathy Cashier DOES better herself continuously, and moves on, only to be replaced by another Cathy Cashier. As long as we need Cathy Cashiers, that JOB should pay minimum wage.

It's similar to CEO of a large corporation. Not many people can qualify for the job (not me or you, for instance). And the CEO gets paid commensurate, in a sort of way, with the total wealth of the corporation and its size. It's the JOB, plus the PERSON, that determines the pay. It has nothing to do with how hard or long he works.

But of course, all the CEOs seem to be getting paid exorbitant, outrageous amounts these days. I just wanted to point out that it wouldn't matter if the CEO did in fact work really hard or not. That's not what the pay is for, exactly.

(I work harder than a lot of people who get paid much more than I do. Then again, I don't have the education or qualifications or background to do what they do...or the desire, frankly. I have a job that pays within a certain salary range, regardless of how hard we work. I happen to work outrageously hard. That's gotten me some bonuses. But I certainly don't get paid more than the others who have my job title and don't work as hard.)

no truer words were even spoken , what makes them think they are any diff then the rest of us

I go way back, and remember Ike, JFK, et al. I was a young teen when the Beatles hit, and remember exactly where I was during all the deaths/assassinations of the '60s. I loved Zap Comics and the Smothers Brothers, and got gassed marching against the war. I never thought we would be in this place, never, where our shared consensus about common decency and civil rights would be shredded by the wealth and power of those who would destroy us.

I hope to make it another few years, and to fight for small but meaningful things. I think we have lost the larger battles.

eom

What a NOVEL IDEA.

We can JOIN the rest of the Greedy bastards, forget about the millions of people who cannot help themselves. You know, the homeless, the uneducated, the sick, etc..

Your post says to me, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

That is not a world worth living in. We are the stewards of our world. It is up to us to make this a better place than what we found. Your type of thinking is the major plank of the GOP. Does that reasoning really seem sound to you?

You just go on "helping yourself."

edited for spelling

eom

I wish there had been a "Sarcasm tag" on it. Honestly, I do not know what "eom" means.

;)

it's always good to learn something.

:D

since the person opens the message, anyway, to read the message, only to find "eom." Doesn't make much sense. Might as well go ahead and type a line, if you're having the reader open the message. The whole point of "eom" is so the reader doesn't have to bother with opening the message.

eom

We are losing as an imperial power and that, I think, is a good thing.

It moderated their behavior somewhat. That's no longer the case.

eom

eom

Like it or not, it represented a radically different (and fairly successful for some decades) alternative to capitalist social relations. Our capitalist class had to soften its approach to the working class in response to this counter-example.

Now, the powers that be feel that capitalism with a human face is no longer necessary, since "there is no alternative" to hardline global capitalism.

...are being told to lower their hopes (let alone their expectations) concerning health care coverage, housing, and some variation on the pension.

I need not tell you what is being done to the disadvantaged, those who depend on WIC, school lunches, food stamps, etc.

It already was bad, and I don't quite understand why public outcry hasn't been stronger. In fact, judging by reality TV and the like, many appear to take inequities for granted, perhaps even aspire to join the haves, however unrealistic that is.

In any event, this has been developing for years. Witness Jack Welch retiring in lavish style while the RCA employees lost their pensions. :mad:

That's the only explanation I have for it. I see it in almost all of my friends & family, regardless of their assets, or lack of, this adoration of people who make a lot of money. (Or at least, people that appear to make a lot of money.) America is about money & what it can buy you - power, influence & luxury. We are no longer about community, innovation or excellence.

Wealth adoration also creates this fear, that if we don't give the rich & the corpos all the tax breaks & deregulation they want, they will leave the country. Hey, they didn't leave when taxes were high & now, there are very few other developed countries they can go to, where taxes are lower. (Like three, IIRC. Someone posted a chart a few weeks ago, but I didn't save the link.)

and all it took were a few determined mothers to eventually undermine the Argentine dictatorship

Hell, executive pay has far, far exceeded that rate of growth.
For the rest of us, not so much...

I can't explain how much it angers me when I hear someone complaining about a union worker making a "ghastly" $30 an hour. If the average wage of an American worker would have continued to rise in accordance with inflation and what not, A freaking Wal-Mart greeter would be making that amount.

I'm obviously not an expert, and I pulled the above comment pretty much out of my ass, but I definitely know something is not right. If you ask me, billionaires shouldn't exist. That's a perverted level of wealth that confirms a major imbalance within our economic system.

The former has risen precipitously, alarmingly for those making working- and middle-class wages. Rising food prices, rents, insurance premiums, and so forth make everyone feel the squeeze and indeed destroy people's hopes.

Meanwhile taxes have been lowered, repeatedly, on the top 1 percent, and that means something in terms of deficits, inequities, and control of power.

And interestingly, it's the advocates for for lighter taxation on the rich who tut-tut (or even scream) about class warfare, evidently as some preemptive strike to control the conversation.

Society can't sustain this. We can handle this reasonably by taking a hard look at what's happened and making policy changes, or we can wait for hell to break loose.

In his book, "Take This Job & Ship It," Byron Dorgan (former ND senator (D)) stated that if minimum wage had kept up with CEO pay through the 90's & mid-2000s, it would be approximately $23. The book was published in 2006.

i totally agree with. there's no fucking reason for ANYONE to be a billionaire! nobody needs that much money to live a decent life, and the only reason some have that much money is by stepping on everyone under them!

(that pretty much makes me a socialist, i guess....)

what's happened to our country.

And so do you.

The current tax code allows corporations to deduct 100 percent of their executive compensation. Creating some sort of sliding scale tied to whatever they pay the peons (speaking as a peon, I approve of this language) would either cause peon pay to go up or executive pay to go down. And YES, they can do this, and have: you can't deduct your mortgage interest if you make more than a certain amount and the percentage you're allowed to deduct goes down as your income goes up.

What do y'all think: full deductability up to 50x average peon pay (average the salary of everyone who isn't an executive, and you got some 'splainin' ta do, Lucy, if the new checkbox "executive" on the W-2s for your employees is checked on the guys making $9000 a year and unchecked on the guys making $90,000 or $900,000)

These undeserving CEOs need to be given the choice about their wealth:

Invest your money in industry beneficial to the entire country (like clean renewable energy)
Or face a steep progressive tax rate that hits 95% for income above $1,000,000

The accumulation of wealth at the top is having detrimental effects on the average citizen of this country. In order for this country to survive and prosper, we need a more equatable distribution of income.

toward the 99 percent. The only questions that remain is when it will happen and the level of social unrest that will occur to accomplish it.

salaries
their is respect for their workers and in Germany workers have a seat at the Board table

if GM Ford and others would allow the workers at the board table
then this would not have gone so extreme

We are back into the times of the Robber Barons and Dickens...the rest of the world progresses and we are stagnating and rotting under corruption and going nowhere

There are many execs in Germany earning over 10 million Euros per year.

The government doesn't run the companies, it can't say what the compensation is.

Many German execs make more than that. The article cites $60 million for one.

There's nothing in the laws or regs specifically limiting their salary.

... it can accomplish the same thing through taxation: you want to pay yourself 10 million? Okay, but the tax bracket for that is 90%. 20 million? No problem, that will be 95% income tax. Execs can pay themselves whatever they want, but if they aren't going to be allowed to keep more than a fair and reasonable level of compensation, there'd be no point to it; they might as well reinvest the money back into the company.

Change will come when they finally wake up and see they've been sold a huge crock of shit. The Horatio Alger-every-man-can-be-a-success-only-if-he-works-hard-enough meme is still being used by the GOP to some degree, and those who can least afford to believe it believe it the most.

I've always maintained that society needs a healthy middle class to retain its equilibrium. The middle class is dying. When it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide for the essentials of life, as it is in these times, the center will not hold.


ON EDIT: Typo, and to say a huge K&R.

Overcoming the propaganda is a must in order to educate the masses.

Instead, President Obama is planning to have the Fairness Doctrine completely removed from FCC rules. Then it will only exist (maybe) in History Books, not approved by the Texas committee.

There is no doubt that acute and growing inequality now defines America, and I couldn't agree more about the key role played by the inculcation of the American Dream ideology in the minds of everyone.

What makes me pessimistic about change is that our public information systems have been so corrupted that there is little chance of people becoming exposed to any serious or sustained challenge to the prevailing ideology we are all socialized to accept.

It comes at us though the media, through schools, through churches, through community groups, you name it, and the content is always such as to affirm the American Dream myth.

I'm 61, and I can see that inequality has become much worse in recent years, and the inequalities are accelerating.

With the post 9/11 securitization and militarization of society still ongoing, I feel like a dark curtain is coming down.

I certainly support people getting out to vote for Dems, but I have little confidence that electoral politics can or will change things much anymore for the better.

I think it's time for people, families and small communities to be thinking about how to look after themselves peacefully, and as independently as possible, where they can do so.

Because even worse shit is coming down.

that the reason that they call it the "American Dream" is that you have to be asleep to believe it. I'm your age and I am deeply ashamed of what this country has turned into and I believe that this corporate deconstruction and privatization of our society will continue. I know that the word "sheeple" is an unfair generalization but I do see an enormous amount of complacency and a tendency to distraction in this country. Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" should be read by a LOT more people.

We Americans (and that includes a LOT of Democrats, BTW) are so focused on THINGS.

You'll see it here in DU, as well as in the real world. People who post...on their own laptops...here in DU, saying they need $$$ because they're homeless or out of food. And yet...they have a laptop?

People who are losing their homes and sad because they can't afford the storage building to store their THINGS.

People who say they can't afford $200 a year to assist with our neighborhood crime patrol, yet they have two late model cars in their driveways, own one or two computers, live in a $250,000 home, and have smartphones (with the customary pricey monthly contracts).

Things. So focused on gadgets and things and new cars and the latest fashion and iphones and ipads and ipods and kindles and nooks and dvds and cd players and mp3s and itunes and ....whatever.

Too busy with their things to think about what's going on around them. They stop playing with their gadgets for an hour, long enough to watch Fox News and have it confirmed that all is okay except for the socialistic evil President, and then they go back to their gadgets.

As George Carlin said, the main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are concerned with THINGS....Democrats are concerned with PEOPLE. I fear that that difference is evaporating.

That is what is called an anomaly in the morass that is capitalism.

Remember when teachers and public employees crashed the stock market?

:sarcasm:



But Seriously, and great article.

Now life, death, and how long one lives is tied to the amount of money one has. It's a free for all.... anything goes, the dirtiest, and cruelest win.

We're in five wars now, supposedly trying to force our way of life on others and no one is getting in line.

There is much said about Amerikan exceptionalism but, it sounds ike what Hitler said and the same that was said right before the Roman Empire collapsed.

Perhaps this is the fate of mankind, not learning the lessons from History.

A fellow DUer posted this yesterday:

A police State at home inevitably follows an Empire abroad.

We still have a long way to go as a species before we can call ourselves "civilized" ;-(

can do that is worth millions and millions and millions of dollars. I would guess a whole lot of people work a whole lot harder: teachers, nurses, janitors, chefs, farm laborers, mechanics . . . just about anyone who doesn't have a private jet to get around in. This country is bassackwards. Hard work no longer pays.

To be truly horrified, go to:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/

Click on "Income, wealth, and power" and page down to the pie charts showing the
distribution of wealth and financial wealth. It's not that easy to spot the
sliver that represents 90% of the people.

and is still happening,and nobody in authority (with a few exceptions e.g. Bernie) seems to notice or give a crap. Republicans are pushing this agenda and Democrats are complicit by silence, inaction, or weakness. We never seem to go forward, just a long slow slide backward, and each day brings a proposal which takes us farther along this road. I don't know how this scenario ends, but my fear is a
South American style goverment, with the Army in power or a puppet President backed by the military, protecting the oligarcy against the people, and much of the people brainwashed to support this.

I place a great deal of the blame for this in the corporate owned media. We no longer have a free press, we have an owned press. All our institutions designed to protect our freedom are corporate controlled now. I honestly don't see a way out.

You wrote: I don't know how this scenario ends, but my fear is a
South American style goverment, with the Army in power or a puppet President backed by the military, protecting the oligarcy against the people, and much of the people brainwashed to support this.

I agree. I also share your frustration at being unable to imagine how this ends other than very, very badly.

Building a great country based on democracy and "free enterprise" was a great and noble experiment, but the experiment is over, and democracy lost.

that the South American style of government is increasingly NOT like that. We used to look down our noses at the dictatorial regimes that flourished there (many doing the bidding of U.S. corporations and our government's geopolitical designs) but now we are seeing a change to more representative and liberal governments all over South America. Peru just made sure that Fujimori's daughter (who supported his repressive agenda) was not elected president and the people voted in a former military man who is regarded as left of center! Can you imagine that happening in this country? Not a chance. Our generals are mostly a group of politicians who are quite willing to carry on the imperial designs of the government/corporations. Any general like Eric Shinseki (who correctly stated that we would need far more troops to "stabilize" Iraq) are shown the door. The changes that are sweeping through South America are wonderful. I just wish that our own country could emulate them. I wish that our political system would permit a person like Evo Morales of Bolivia to run but we are stuck with this reprehensible "two party system" that is really a single party with somewhat different PR departments. And, yes, I agree about the media. With few exceptions you get corporate news just about everywhere. Even the "News Hour" on PBS expects us to accept the generally right of center bias of their news with all of the usual people on from the Council on Foreign Relations, the Heritage Foundation and the CATO Institute. I was astonished to see Judy Woodruff interviewing none other than Bernie Saunders on not long ago. That sort of interview is quite rare. Plus all of the "underwriting messages" which are really commercials. The most outrageous was the one for Boeing in which they show all of these dedicated Boeing employees and you see attack helicopters and other kinds of military vehicles and the narrator talks about how they help to "keep the battle space safe". This is on PBS! That and other underwriters like Monsanto and Bank of America and on and on. Of course, the other media outlets like Fox, etc are beneath contempt. A good example of how we are brainwashed by this crap is that, even after Bush the Lesser admitted that Bin Laden had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11 there were still something like 40% of Americans polled who believed that he did. I'm sure that made Roger Ailes of Fox News very pleased.

We were within a whisker of the start of another Great Depression that would have made the first one look like a picnic in the park. It was caused by an over-greedy and selfish mindset on Wall Street. Just make money for ME just for the sake of making money. No creation of actual, new wealth. Just set up a bunch of pyramid schemes that will make them richer at the expense of the masses of people in this country.

We, the taxpayers, bailed their asses and this country out of it...for now. Yet, even though they damned near destroyed our economy, these Wall Street bastards still took their multi-million dollar BONUSES on top of their obscene base pay, like they deserved it.

. . . you know, the pages I COULD read before fascist WaPo put it's subscriber sign-in page up after the first two . . . was that the high-ups threatened to call the police on reporters asking Dean Foods workers questions. So I guess they also think they have a hand in creating the fluffy defend-the-rich press they want. Utterly amazing.

Cost of living increases don't affect the ridiculously undertaxed wealthy because they'll just increase compensation to make up for it (and even after all that, they still sit on piles of investment portfolio green). Workers have no such luxury, and instead get chastised by the low-info crowd, often other workers themselves, that blame poverty and not getting ahead on "UHmerukins by 2 much STUFFS!!" Uh, we can't reduce the cost of mortgage, transportation, groceries, energy, health "care", education and what not. That's only going UP in price, while in fact, the price of "STUFFS" has actually decreased since the 70s.

The wealthy don't even get that shit like this is what's going to cause civil unrest rather than suppress it. It's only a matter of time.

Astounding to me that the Washington Post even runs an article like this, since Fred Hiatt and their whole editorial page is devoted to empowering the few and the rich. Heads will roll because this ran, I can assure you. No way is this supposed to be reported, especially by the Post.

I thought the Washington Times was the right-wing medium in DC and the WaPo was more moderate. Sort of like NY Times is the moderate one and the NYDP was the right-wing one.

There are no national-level left-wing news outlet in the US.

to the "merikuns buy too much stuff" to make even those who are suffering feel guilty. I mean, who buys a new smart phone when they may go hungry at the end of the month, or be late to pay rent(even if we don't buy that phone)? and yet we as a group seem to do just that all to often. As a group, especially in lower income groups, we have atrocious money handling skills or at least skewed priorities.

And we know it. Its Obvious. We know we didn't really take that one high school class they required us to take on keeping a checkbook register, stock investing, and budgeting serious, and we know we are not rich. Clearly these are directly connected. Thus the periodic popularity of the "these 5 millionaires drive used cars" type articles (see http://www.money-zine.com/Investing/Investing/The-7-Top-Ways-Millionaires-Become-Wealthy/ for an example). Ignoring the fact that the really rich take a jet instead, and implying that the rich are rich due to their personal thriftiness and good sense.

In the mean time we can take solace in the fact that at least we paid more attention in that class than that guy on the street corner, as is obvious by the fact I have a 89 Mazda and a job at McDonald's and he has only bicycle and a sign asking for my hard earned money. Its a good thing we are a thrifty as we are. I bet when I bought my kid a ps3 game, that guy on the corner bought his 4. That's why he's there, broke. Of course if I was really responsible, I wouldn't have bought any, you know, like the rich, who are known to abstain from any luxury purchases.

And maybe it would be for the best that it would.

because what is happening is that with wealth disparity and major tax cuts to the wealthy our infrastructure is failing and the corrupt unamerican slimeballs will sell us to the highest bidder. Won't matter if its a corporation from China, Dubai-our infrastructure will go to the highest bidder while all government departments like FDA, hwy dept-will be managed by those corporations who are actually in the business of providing us food, medicines, etc... Private prisons will just be a con game between the justice department and private prisons, with more citizens being jailed for petty things while corporations will enjoy more slave prison labor. Of course, the plebe taxpayer will be paying more for these services because the privatize system must make a profit-but you as a citizen will have even less voice and they will have no accountability to the people.

We're talking major FUBAR at a grand scale. And any election (if even allowed after that) will just be a show for the plebes. For global corporations will run every damn thing, and if you get out of line, no problem, because a privatized police system where they can hire any thug from around the world would be delighted to shoot the citizenry. And to me, that's the future we will have if we allow the disintegration of our government-selling us off to the highest bidder.

but the big shift (the biggest boost) in the wealth distribution happen when bush was appointed President..Then when the corporate mafia saw there just might be a good chance they could lose their puppet they again made sure they kept their front man puppet in office by stealing yet another election in 2004..And now after 2 1/2 years, the shocker..we still have a corporate puppet in the White House only this time he is a Democrat..or at least that is the label he gave himself when he ran as "change we can believe in"..

somehow.

Everyone making 20k to 200k SHOULD be voting the same way.

Unfortunately small business, middle mgmt, and media people have bought in to the big lie.

Equally important is the ungodly influence of business lobbyists in Washington.

There could be a way to join hands with (yes I'm saying it) tea partiers to throw out the moneychangers from their undo influence.

In the '90s there was a book, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" that explored why people voted against their own interests. It's because the Kochs et al fund media outlets to convince people that if they give in to their petty prejudices instead of their real self interests, they will be better off.

They have won. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid - programs that make us a better nation - are DOA, and soon.

will prevent anything from being done about it. On the contrary, it will likely get worse because that's how unregulated/under-regulated capitalism works: those who have the most to invest/gamble with will make the most (as long as they're not complete morons).

what you describe is a system where the weak dominate the strong, the exact opposite of what we've been taught to believe. A tiny fraction of a population will always hold in contempt but will also fear a huge majority it keeps under its boot heal. Sometimes I think the uber rich must shake their heads in bewilderment and wonder why we let them get away with it.

Well done.

The plan to strip the unprivileged of what little we have left. And they're doing it in the classic good ole boy place: the golf course.

years ago...for free at a community college. We have public golf courses here in our area.

Sports are good for the body and soul (and helps relieve stress). Any sport.

Or are you one of those who thinks black men should stick to basketball? (Obama plays a mean game of basketball, you know. He's not so good at golf.)

on the o/p:
this is why people like the (Jesse) James gang, Bonnie & Clyde, Zapata & Pancho Villa, Che' Guevara, Robin Hood & his band, Spartacus, or the Outlaws of the Liang Shang Po Marshes of China, stand up to the man; & become folk heroes. this is why revolutions take off. the greedy, arrogant, money-hungry, power-hungry bastards and their governing lackeys, will drive regular folk beyond the limits of tolerance.

this is what happens, when victims get pissed off with predators.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGeN0wwC5To&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gweVRrOTkw

...and for pretty much the same reason: those higher up the scale have more leverage to push around those lower down.
To limit the concentration requires active measures to break it up and spread it out. Also known as "Checks and Balances".

At the time Kenneth J. Douglas was running that company, and others like him, high tax rates on high personal income, much stronger regulations against financial wheeling and dealing, strong unions, and an executive culture that priorities beyond maximizing returns (for themselves) helped put a damper on executive income and other managment practices (like outsourcing).

But these days the economic system that built widespread postwar prosperity in this country is "socialist" and "communist".

Our Leaders of this Country have sold the people out for Corporate America Inc...
The United States has become the Biggest Business of all instead of a Democracy..
This is why our Government is now in this survival mode and turning on the people..
No longer is the American spirit about us the People and saving America...
Its about Money and control.. Its about lobbyist, huge campaign donations from corporations and the very Rich.... Taking care of those who make the most money in America..
Now that the People are no longer paying constituents... They have no say in what this government does...

that is an in-depth investigation on how this state of affairs has come about:
Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker & Pierson

Always appreciate a book recommendation.

Wealth Addiction is applauded in the US. Billionaire TV has decided tax and benefit cuts are the only things on the table to talk about. 'Serious People' on TV will decide our future not politicians, prols or mystery voting boxes.


Wall Street Disguised as Government

Dems bribed/blackmailed to act helpless

Captive Corrupt Media


Bushco lose pallets full of money in Iraq, your family will have to tighten their belts just a little more... Conventional Wisdom manufactured fresh daily.

There's hope for America, it's just very dim right now. How do you make the super wealthy care that their greed causes pain to the poor, when they consider the poor a disease to begin with?

BHN:thumbsup: :hi:

I wish I shared your optimism!

Dim hope is better than no hope.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/12/boss-10_Gregg-L-Engles_XU3T.html

Salary: $1.3 million
Bonus: $2.35 million
"Other compensation": $1.63 million

Total: $5.28 million

Where he's making the REAL money ($20.23 million) is in his Dean Foods stock.

Now, you want to talk about a real corporate overlord, check out Jen-Hsun Huang, who runs Nvidia.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/12/boss-10_Jen-Hsun-Huang_BAN9.html

He brings home $31.4 million per year, which is outrageous, but look at the breakout: $31.39 million stock gains, $0.01 million salary and no bonus. Subtract the stock gains and he makes less than I do.

I don't know if you can fix this problem because of the logistics of the thing: the Dean Foods guy got less than $4 million in cash and $20 million in stock options. An employee stock option is what would, in another financial universe, be referred to as a "long at-the-money call"--you have the right to purchase stock at a certain price, and the "strike price" of the option is the same as the current stock price. You can buy these yourself. They cost 44 cents per share, and since a call option gets you 100 shares of stock, a contract will cost you $44. Dean Foods is trading at $12 right now, so if you wait till the price goes above $12.44 and exercise the call you'll have to pay $1200 for the privilege--and 100 shares of oh, $13.50 (or whatever it's trading at when you exercise) Dean Foods stock will wind up in your brokerage account.

Why everyone likes stock options: The recipient doesn't pay taxes on them when he gets them. If he exercises the option, holds the stock for a year and sells, he pays tax at the long-term capital gains rate rather than the "big paycheck" rate. If the company gives him $1 million worth of options at a $12 strike price, it pays less than $37,000 for them rather than the $1 million paying a million in cash would cost. There are also some tax advantages to the corporation.

Someone upthread said the way to fix this would be to create a confiscatory tax rate on executives who don't invest in "beneficial" industries. That won't work for a couple reasons: these guys are already making their money by investing. You force a rich guy to invest and what do you get? An even richer guy. The other reason is, if you want to solve the problem of rich guys getting lots of money you don't start by taking money away from rich guys, you start by not giving it to them in the first place. To do that you're going to have to reengineer the tax code to require recipients of stock options to pay taxes on them as if they were cash compensation. You also need to set up the capital gains tax rate so long-term gains are taxed on a sliding scale--a guy who makes $200,000 pays 28 percent on long-term gains and a guy who makes $1 million pays the full top rate on them.

Now, if we wanted to be REALLY serious about taxing the shit out of the rich, try this: a two-step tax rate for guys pulling down over $2 million per year. Count everything as cash income--stock options, under-the-table stuff, long-term gains, whatever. Apply a flat 5 percent rate to the first $2 million--that's $100,000, and it's probably more than those guys are paying now--and a 99 percent tax on everything above it. All of a sudden you've got rich guys offering to work for only $2 million for the good of the country. The right wing will scream "But the rich won't create jobs!" The rich don't create jobs NOW. They haven't in quite some time--dating back to the Reagan era. The right wing fairy tale about job growth says, "once upon a time there was a rich man who wanted to make wonderful cookies for all the little boys and girls to enjoy, so he built a bakery, hired a bunch of people including someone who knows how to make cookies, and hung a sign outside the door." Yeah, a hundred and fifty years ago he would have done this. The 1950s fairy tale goes, "once upon a time there was a rich man who wanted to make wonderful cookies for all the little boys and girls to enjoy. He already made breads and rolls, so he built a cookie factory, hired a bunch of people and released ads saying "Rich Man Bread now makes cookies!" The Reagan-era fairy tale says, "once upon a time a rich man who owns a baking company noticed there was another rich man across the street making cookies for all the little boys and girls to enjoy. He didn't think it was right that all the money that company was making was going into someone else's bank account, so he called a corporate raider named Victor Posner. Mr Posner set up a hostile takeover of the cookie company. The rich man then fired all the people who worked at the cookie company, moved the cookie machines into his bread factory, and released ads saying "North Side of the Street Cookies are now South Side of the Street Cookies." No, corporations are going to have to create the new jobs in the new industries--because the individual rich people ain't gonna.

Many British Imperialists became Communists in the 1930’s because they realized Marx was right when he said a cyclical crash occurs in a capitalist system when so much money accumulates at the top that the general public, supposed to serve as both producers and consumers, no longer have enough money to consume what they produce. And it is true that concentration of wealth reached extreme levels in the twenties and in the last decade. Concentration of wealth reduces the overall demand for consumer products, because after all how much Diet Coke can one billionaire drink? How many Mercedes Benz S550 AMGs can he drive? Can less than 1% of the population really float an entire economy?

We have arrived at the same imbalances that led to the 1929 crash, and even though Ben Bernanke is a scholar of the Great Depression, there is nothing he can do to rebalance the economy. Indeed, he and Congress have exacerbated things, thinking that the system would return to a more balanced state if they just add a little more fuel to the fire. But the kind of fuel they applied was at the wrong end of the supply/demand equation. Fuel for bank and hedge fund speculation isn't what is needed, curbs on them are what is needed. Because what academics like Bernanke fail to realize is, on the other side of the equation are Congress, Wall Street, and Human Nature, who will always take the money and run. The imbalances that inevitably lead to a capsize are now worse than ever.

Employers no longer feel invested in the workers and nation they employ.

It prevents this kind of obscene greed from getting out of hand.

Off shoring only benefits Big Corps.

It will not be long before America finally admits that our Congress is bought and sold by lobbyists on a daily basis.

http://www.businessinsider.com/29-facts-about-extreme-income-inequality-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind-2011-6?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=BI_Select_061711

Did all the executives of this country suddenly have mind reprorgramming to where they thought they could screw their workers and get away with it? Did they just... stop caring? What?

When I tell young employees that in the 60's-early 70's, most people worked a "9 to 5" job (just like the song), meaning you worked 7 hours with 1 hour paid civilized lunch break and one short paid break every 2 hours. Granted, they had 'managers' that were paid to watch that their department did not abuse their break time, look out the windows too much, or socialize on company time. (And, of course, then we didn't have phones but at the supervisor's desk.) Then it was whittled down to what we have today. Today is 8 hours work, 30 minutes unpaid lunch which few actually eat during or leave the building, a break which few can take, and unpaid overtime because everyone is doing the work of 3 past employees.

Seriously....that'll do away with the excess consumption & people who have nothing to offer but numbers on a piece of paper? I shed a tear, but just one.

in 2008. We were pissed, but it was the truth. The Wall Street securities companies were practicing Casino Capitalism, by creating massive salaries, commissions, and bonuses for themselves with a giant shell game of trading worthless pieces of paper back and forth for increasingly bigger commissions. Then the whole Ponzie scheme collapsed and the taxpayers were left holding the bill.

Thanks to the fact that these mega-rich plutocrats had successfully "INVESTED" in our political system, donating almost equal amounts of money to both political parties, very little has been done to change the situation.

The Europeans called it Casino Capitalism, but I think it's more like a Capitalism Lottery system. If you go to college and get an MBA and go to work for a wallstreet company, it's the equivalent of buying your lottery ticket, and you stand a chance of being one of these executives who are paid (only in America) up to 400 times more than the average worker.

Make no mistake: THIS IS A UNIQUELY AMERICAN THING! The American executives are paid more than 400 times more than the average worker. Compare this to the Japanese executives who make only a PIFFLING TEN TIMES as much. Or the British and German executives who make only 40 times as much.

So, I ask, are those American executives really WORTH ten times more than their german counterparts, or 40 times more than their Japanese counterparts??

HOW ABOUT THIS for a plan: We've done the OUTSOURCING thing with all the lower level jobs....how about we start OUTSOURCING the EXECUTIVE positions??? I'm sure there are some crackerjack Japanese and British executives who'd love to run Goldman Sachs and Bank of America for a pathetic slave wage of $10 million a year. I'm sure we could have found somebody other than William McGwire to run UNITED HEALTH for a total compensation package of 1.4 billion! Wouldn't that 1.4 billion have been better spent on...oh I don't know...delivering HEALTH CARE to UNITED HEALTHCARE CLIENTS???

we are too stupid and lazy to rise up against them.


They may be right.

This country has the most uneducated populace in our history.
The majority are ignorant, apathetic and proud of it.

I just read today that Indiana has cut off the funding for Planned Parenthood medicaid patients.

Talk about a really BAD idea, and yet those in Indiana who think this was somehow
going to stop their tax dollars going to pay for abortion, (which they never did, but who has time
to learn the FACTS... Right?) have not considered how the spread of undetected STDs will rise,
the costs of end of life care for undetected female cancers, breast, cervical and ovarian, to name a few,
will impact their burden in healthcare costs for uninsured, untreated patients-

And just wait till the women who depend on PP for birth control methods start
filling the schools with children dependent on the state for food, education and other needs.

If this legislation is not a case study of complete ignorance, then I don't know what is.
So will the plebes rise up? Very doubtful indeed.

BHN

is a means to an end.

I don't have any hope at this point.
They won- we watched American Idol and hung out at the mall and Starbucks.
BHN