the rich get richer

[mckitterick]

I just heard on the radio that the CEO of Exxon-Mobil retired with a

$400,000,000 (Four Hundred Million - Half a Billion - Dollar)

package.

This after a year of record oil-company profits and killer gas prices.

This is also after Congress shot down a rise in the minimum wage. (And voted themselves another $30,000 raise.)

How is this legal? Anyone with a single brain cell can see this is unethical, anti-ethical, downright sick, but is it legal? If so, something is wrong with the laws in this country.

I feel sick to my stomach thinking about this. I mean, if that half-billion retirement gift were spread out among all the minimum-wage earners in this country, they could all get a nice raise. Jesus, and he's only one man. Sick.

Comments

[solan-t.livejournal.com]

And people wonder why US companies fold.... All you really have to do is see how much they pay their highest officers.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Don't the shareholders find this unacceptable? Don't they even read the shareholder-meeting documentation? I mean, what, they really have that much to spare? Well, then, it's high time to drop the federal subsidies. Geez.

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

It's because this country is full of selfish bastards. ;-/

They think a raise in minimum wage would mean inflation without a raise in their personal salaries if they're earning more than minimum now, so they think that each dollar of raise someone else gets is a dollar from their own wage.

It doesn't work that way, but it's a hard sell for some folk.

Oh, and you're a total commie for suggesting that someone with sick wealth should somehow share it. :-P~~~~

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

So let's say you make, oh I dunno, HALF A BILLION in a year. How does prices going up a little affect you personaly? Geez and double-geez.

[stuology.livejournal.com]

That would give each minimum-wage worker about $72 which really would not do anything to solve why minimum wage workers are making minimum wage in the first place.

But yeah, high level executives are all in one big club, and they all serve on each others board of directors. They answer only to their majority shareholders. They make too much money for what they do.

Now, if companies would pour a big chunk of that money into training to increase the skills of their minimum wage workers or to education in the areas they operate or use some of that to offset the increasing cost of medical insurance or help provide affordable daycare, then I think they would help people's lives more than a $72 handout.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I was just using that to illustrate a point: I mean, wow, $72 to everyone. That's a ton of money to someone earning minimum wage; it's almost as much as the "big tax break gift" Bush gave the average people a few years ago.

The real issue is what you suggest. How is it that the feds support jobs going overseas when that same tax break could go toward training and health insurance here? That would make us more competitive, if that's what they really want.

But the amazing thing to me is that shareholders don't revolt over such insane give-aways to the already rich; it affects their wealth to reduce the value of their stocks - that could have been a dividend!

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

An awful lot of "stockholders" are 401(k)s that have no interest in doing anything useful or ... citizenly about their stock holdings.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

You will like this link:

http://www.senatemajority.com/lee_r_raymond_oil_profitability_act

Another thing we could do for our country is cease to let the government contract with any firm that has moved overseas to avoid taxes -- just plain forbid contracting with any foreign firm, period. Keeping the money here would help a bunch.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I love that! But will anyone care, even if it's changed to that? I bet no.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Let's look at it this way: if the so-called "Healthy Forests" bill had been called the "Sell off Public Parkland Cheap to Lumbering Companies Bill", how would it have played to call it by its name in the news media?

I think this is what Lautenberg was aiming for.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

An excellent point! Something that those who voted for it would love when referring to it during their re-election campaigns *g*

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Quite. There is a move on the left to rename the Estate Tax the Parasite Tax or the Paris Hilton Tax, so that it is glaringly evident who would profit from its repeal. *Eighteen families* who have been pushing for this would be the main people who profit. Can you imagine? You would actually have to be a multi-millionaire before this tax kicks in -- and its repeal has been presented over and over during the Bush Boondoggle.

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

It's perfectly legal. Companies are at liberty to set their own standards of recompense. Now, you and I may vehemently disagree with it but there's not much more to do other than shake our heads and maybe write a letter or two.

Note that in 2002, the average CEO made more than 500 times the wage of a worker in his/her factory.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I suppose. Sigh.

I just calculated this guy's bonus versus a $50,000/year salary (not a shabby salary, if I say so myself): 4000 times. This rich bastard earned thousands of times the average salary every year before that, too.

Who is worth 4000 as much as someone else? How can you measure that? Wouldn't 3999 other employees add more profit than this one dude? Makes me sick.

[astein142.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't be so annoying, if WE HADN'T PAID FOR IT OURSELVES! (grumble grumble $3-a-gallon gasoline grumble grumble)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Yes, exactly!

[astein142.livejournal.com]

(Gag. Cough. Sputter. Sigh.) You know those dark periods of history that you read about in school, where the powers that be were corrupt, the rich got richer by the sweat of the poor rabble, and wars fought in the name of king, country, and/or religion went on for years but never really resolved anything? We're there, baby.

[secret-malady.livejournal.com]

God you're not kidding. When I think about that, and think about the war and the profits Halliburton got, and how it's all connected, and how not only did we lose a raise in the minimum wage but lots of workers rights to organize on the job have been erased, my head spins.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yet things will only get worse (for the non-ultra-rich) until the regular folks turn things upside-down again. See astein142's response above: We've been here before and will do so again.

Well, until nanofactories become ubiquitous... but the ultra-rich will still find a way to keep most of the power in their court.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Good god.

I'm no fan of communism (though I like "commonism"), nor am I up for the willy-nilly redistribution of wealth, but this example just screams for some kind of Robin Hood action.

In lieu of that, let's all remember to vote!

[storytellersjem.livejournal.com]

It's not really for us to say. The shareholders and the board pretty much set up the salaries, and, if they felt the dude made too much, wouldn't they push him out?

As for min wage, I believe the main lobbyists are the small business owners who claim they can barely make ends meet now and hiking up the min wage would kill them.

I do not care for the higher gas prices. Interesting point made a while back about protecting the environment was that the quality of gas would have to go up to lessen air pollution. People balked at paying higher prices. Interesting that most of us want the environment preserved but not if it's out of our pockets. That said, we've set up our culture to rely on cars so any solutions seem as if they would force huge changes on our culture.

[astartes-girdle.livejournal.com]

You'd think the old medieval style of land barons and peasants and tithes has gone away. But it hasn't; they've just changed the name and make it sound like democracy. After all, the Greeks had "democracy" and their women didn't have many rights. So it's all a lovely interpretation of the real thing.

I once wanted to be communist but looking at China and Russia, I realized that communism worked in theory. Just like democracy.