Why CEOs deserve the big bucks.

[Senior citizen]

Remember the, "Someday, son, this will all be yours," cartoons?

Well, when your job is to close plants and ship the jobs overseas, you can't give your kids jobs anymore.

When your job is to eliminate jobs, move business offshore, and destroy your own economy, you have to take whatever you can get right now because your job is to see that there won't be a tomorrow.

It takes a lot of money for a CEO to retire in style and ensure a comparable lifestyle for the kids and grandkids when there won't be any more good jobs left.

Think about it. How much money would make it worthwhile to you to destroy your country's economy so that your kids couldn't have good jobs?

From their point of view, I can understand why CEOs feel they need those big bucks. From my own point of view, of course, they need hanging.

[NC_Nurse]

1. I saw the CEO of Costco

last week on Sunday Morning. He makes $4million which is peanuts these days for a CEO. He said they feel that the top people shouldn't make more than 10 times the annual wage of the bottom rung employees. I was so impressed! He seemed like such a cool guy!
I always shop at Costco and I hope to buy some stock someday. There's a Sam's going up closer to home, but I wouldn't go in their if ya paid me!

[havocmom]

3. I thought the show said he made $300,000 per year

And I noticed he wore no tie, had his sleeves rolled up, worked on the floor and his office desk showed enough clutter that one could surmise he actually did stuff instead of delegating it all.

[aquart]

5. Ah, but the bonus, the bonus.

At one prosecuted firm, execs made nominal salaries, say, $250,000. But their bonuses ran from three to over 17 million dollars a year.

[havocmom]

10. the report also said he turned down bonus when the company didn't hit

projected figures for a couple of years. There are some people out there who have ethics.

[aquart]

12. Clearly, his mother was not Barbara Bush.

[punpirate]

6. Not surprisingly...

... he's also taking a lot of heat from Wall Street investors that Costco isn't making enough money, and he needs to cut costs (i.e., cut salaries and number of personnel), which, to date, he's refused to do.

I believe, in an interview with him I read recently, that Costco sales staff are making about $40K/yr after three or four years, full health benefits, etc. He won't budge on this because, as he says, there's no point in training people to be the best in the business and have them leave in a year or two because of low wages.

Smart guy.

[depakid]

13. A recent Business Week showed that Costco

actually beats Wallmart at their own game by offering considerably higher pay and better benefits to their employees, thereby creating a more dedicated, loyal and well trained workforce. On the other hand, Wallmart's business model creates high turnover- and so they incur higher training costs and lose their "human capital" investment.

The bottom line: Costco pulls in about 15% more operating profit per employee than Wallmart or sams' club. Costco's motivated employess also sell more: over 20% more per square foot.

Wall Street, of course, has a bias toward the low wage model, despite the fact that it dumps costs onto society and other employers- and decreases disposable income in communities. It's not a sustainable practice in the long run.

Sooner or later the even analysts will come around, because as you said, Sinegal is a smart guy who thinks outside of the box.. and Wallmart's not likely to be getting much favorable PR any time soon.

[NC_Nurse]

8. You're right

my bad. it was $3 or 400,000. Can you tell I'm math-challenged today?

Even 4 million would have been a hundred times less than some of these highway robbers at the top.

One guy resigned after one year and got $170 million goodbye payment!:mad:

[Senior citizen]

7. I can't afford the membership and don't buy enough to justify it, but

a friend shops there and sometimes gets me things. Their Kirkland (store brand) protein salon formula shampoo with moisturizing marine algae extract make the BEST liquid hand soap ever, and is much less expensive. I house-sat for my friend a few years back, and thought the soap (in a ceramic frog dispenser, not the original bottle which is very large) was some sort of expensive, exotic, special stuff, because it felt good and had a friendly, pleasant fragrance that wasn't perfumey.

There definitely should be caps on CEO salaries. I like ten times what the lowest paid employee gets. So if they use people in other countries who get paid $300 a year, the CEO here should get no more than $3,000 a year. I'd go for that!

[olddem43]

9. The 10 times rule should be a Federal Law and

include any other fringe benefits. In fact, how about a constitutional amendment to that effect, just so some activist Supreme Court Judges don't over-rule it.

[Deja Q]

2. $26 million is more than enough to raise one person from womb to the tomb

AT $52k per year, that amounts to 500 years.

I'll set up the gallows for you.

[aquart]

4. While hanging is excellent, consider the guillotine.

It deals so well with the concept that the head should lead a life separate from the body.

[havocmom]

11. Or, boiling to make a nice stew for the poor

It was once done when the poor got desparate enough. Now, that's class warfare. The rich in this day and age seem to be sniveling about being victimized by class warfare when we suggest CEOs shouldn't make millions more than the average worker.

And this bit they use to justify immorally high pay because 'good CEOs are few and far between' is total nonsense. If they are so good, how come so many companies are broke, despite the fact that the American worker is more productive now than ever? if they are so far between, how come there are so damned many of them ripping of workers/investors/retirees? Seems like these crooks are really a dime a dozen!