A Land Where CEOs Have Stopped Smiling

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



A Land Where CEOs
Have Stopped Smiling
The Dutch are angry about over-the-top CEO pay, and they're not going to take it any more. Could the Dutch clamp-down on executive excess actually spur action elsewhere?
May 26, 2008

By Sam Pizzigati

The Netherlands now seems to have a new claim to fame. The land of dikes, tulips, and Vermeer may now host the world’s unhappiest corporate CEOs. What’s making the Dutch execs so unhappy? These captains of industry run some of the world’s biggest companies. Yet they're taking home just a quarter of what their counterparts in the United States are making.

The worst part of all: The Dutch people think Dutch executives are making too much. And the Dutch people aren’t just complaining about executive pay. They’re pressing lawmakers to do something. Amazingly, lawmakers are.

The Dutch parliament, observers believe, will shortly enact into law legislation that will heavily tax American-style executive windfalls — and maybe set some global precedents.

Other European nations, news reports indicate, are already taking notice. Earlier this month, in Brussels, European Union finance ministers “applauded” Wouter Bos, the Dutch finance minister who’s leading his nation’s charge against executive excess. The chair of the Brussels session, Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, called the “bloated payouts” going to corporate executives “a social scourge.”

The legislation that Bos is pushing in the Netherlands will impose a 30 percent tax on all executive severance packages that run over 500,000 euros, the equivalent of almost $800,000. Last year, the CEO of the top Dutch baby food maker exited his executive suite with $124 million, a windfall that outraged the Dutch public.

Before that landmark payout, executive pay reformers in the Netherlands had been content to press corporate boards to disclose more info on what they were paying their top execs. That disclosure, they figured, would help shareholders blow the whistle on extraordinary executive earnings.

But this sunshine strategy hasn’t worked, in the Netherlands and other European nations as well, and angry lawmakers are looking at legislation that specifically targets executive excess. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.toomuchonline.org/articlenew2008/may26a.html

[gateley]

1. K&R nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. K&R nt

[angstlessk]

3. and to think the Dutch were the first global monopolists in the world with

their Dutch East India Trading companies...good on them, I guess like a person or even generations of computing it takes time to realize the harm 'free global' trade can do to human beings?

[14thColony]

4. Maybe since they've been in the international corporate game longer

they're passing into a new and more egalitarian phase. Ok, I can dream.

And a shout out to Luxembourg, give 'em hell J-C!

[annabanana]

5. Sounds like a plan to me!. . . .n/t

[KSinTX]

6. We need to wipe the smirks off the faces of some of our CEOs here

and while we're at it, how about the one on Bush's face? Seriously, we should start with senior executives in the oil industry.

[AnneD]

7. Three words come to mind...

Royal Dutch Shell

[reggie the dog]

8. leading the world again

Now if France can just follow the Dutch lead on prostitution and cannabis at the same time as CEO pay....

[MetaTrope]

9. Somehow I foresee a great exodus of Dutch companies heading for Dubai

with offices across the hall from Halliburton...

[glitch]

17. And no telecommuting from somewhere nicer either! nt

[tavalon]

10. I think executive pay is obscene

That said, won't that cause a Dutch brain drain?

[eridani]

14. More like a parasite brain drain n/t

[glitch]

18. More like a Dutch ass drain...

if you judge by any of the CEOs I've met.

[tavalon]

24. LOL

Then, no problem!

[Prophet 451]

25. Not necessarily

The problem here is that there's a basic difference between a European and American way of looking at things. American executives seem to expect obscene salaries and benefits by divine right whereas the European ones know it has to end sometime and are simply surprised it took this long.

Some brains will leave, sure but the majority won't because the Netherlands are such a very, very nice place to live. They'll grumble about the 30%, of course and maybe they'll threaten to leave but they won't do it because in the end, they will figure that the 30% is worth it.

[BreweryYardRat]

11. Good for them, by God!

Let's hope Obama is paying close attention to this.

[OhioChick]

12. K&R

:kick:

[2008]

13. kick!

[Selatius]

15. Watch this appear on CNN and FOX News. Wait. I doubt it will.

Because the dumb fucks who sit in the board rooms also run these damnable news corporations.

[Wednesdays]

16. K&R

:kick:

[ann_american2004]

19. 30%? seems small

Taxes take nearly half = a large cut of our bonuses and incentives.

edit: forgot = sign

[Sam Ervin jret]

20. 30% over 500,000 is a good start, but how about 50% above 5,000,000 and 75% above 10,000,000.

NO ONE is worth 124 million bucks a year in bonus bucks.

Just think of it as us little guys trying to help you rich guys keep your souls so you can still get into heaven. You don't have to thank us.

[KillCapitalism]

21. I like your idea.

Let's also make it 95% for those earning over $100 million.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked, but too late to recommend, if I had a doobie I would burn it in honor of the Dutch.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[Hardrada]

23. A great idea! May it be contagious!