Hi Bootsy:
I've located some quotes on this subject from several
columnists/moralists representing a pretty wide range of political
persuasions (i.e., Molly Ivins on the left and Pat Buchanan on the
right).
From New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:
"Over the past 30 years most people have seen only modest salary
increases: the average annual salary in America, expressed in 1998
dollars (that is, adjusted for inflation), rose from $32,522 in 1970
to $35,864 in 1999. That's about a 10 percent increase over 29 years
-- progress, but not much. Over the same period, however, according to
Fortune magazine, the average real annual compensation of the top 100
C.E.O.'s went from $1.3 million -- 39 times the pay of an average
worker -- to $37.5 million, more than 1,000 times the pay of ordinary
workers."
source: Paul Krugman, "For Richer," New York Times Magazine, October
20, 2002, page 62.
complete article at:
http://spot.colorado.edu/~kaplan/econ3080/Krugman-middle.html
Also from Krugman:
"Thanks to the growing skill of companies at camouflage, and also to a
steady erosion of old inhibitions against apparent excess, the average
pay of
C.E.O.'s at major companies has skyrocketed. It was "only" 40 times
that of an
average worker a generation ago; it's 500 times as much today."
source:
The New York Times, August 23, 2002
The Outrage Constraint
By PAUL KRUGMAN
complete article at:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/bebchuk/pdfs/2002.NYT.Outrage.Constraint.pdf
[This document is in PDF format, so the Adobe Acrobat
Reader is required. If you don't have that, please visit Adobe's web
site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html ]
Or use Google's cached version:
http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:hkqeQNprNGUJ:www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/bebchuk/pdfs/2002.NYT.Outrage.Constraint.pdf&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
From Washington Post columnist George Will:
""American's exhilaration about communism's collapse is mingled with
dismay about facets of their capitalism. . . .
The compensation of CEOs is generally disproportionate and often
ludicrous in light of corporate performance. . . . According to
Business
week, in 1990 Disney's CEO made more in a day than the average Disney
employee made in the year. Is there an economic or moral
justification
for that, or just a power explanation? . . ."
Source: Newsgroup post archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22compensation+of+CEOs%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=5hjb0u%24nrl%40garcia.efn.org&rnum=1
Original article:
"RIPPING OFF CAPITALISM" by George F. Will, Washington Post,
September 1, 1991; Page c7
Available from Newsbank:
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WP&p_theme=wpost&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0=%22compensation%20of%20ceos%22&p_field_label-0=Section&s_dispstring=compensation%20of%20ceos%20AND%20section(*)%20AND%20date(1991)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=1991&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no
From syndicated columnist Molly Ivins:
" Also from the Journal we learn: "At a surprising number of
corporations, the chief executive officer ignores an obvious conflict
of interest by serving on the board's compensation committee.''
Surprising to whom? The absurdity of these compensation committees --
their cozy, interlocking, self-interested nature, with "conflict of
interest'' stamped all over them for any fool to see -- has been the
subject of much reportage.
I think my favorite exec comp stories are the ones about slashers,
like Eastman Kodak's George Fisher, who cut 14,000 jobs in '93-'94 and
got a raise to $3.9 million from $1.9 million. IBM CEO Louis Gerstner
cut 36,000 jobs in '94 and was raised from $2.8 million to $4.6
million."
source: "CEO Slashing" by Molly Ivins
April 11, 1999, hosted by newsmax.com:
http://www.newsmax.com/commentarchive.shtml?a=1999/4/11/082329
From political commentator Pat Buchanan:
"Top CEO salaries were 44 times the average wage of their workers in
1965; by 1996 they were 212 times an average worker's pay.
How has Middle America fared? Between 1972 and 1994, the real wages of
working Americans fell 19 percent. In 1970, the price of a new house
was twice a young couple's income; it is now four times."
source:
PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
Address to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
November 18, 1998, hosted by chuckbaldwinlive
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/read.freetrade.html
search strategy:
"ceo salaries," "compensation of ceos"
salary, "times the average"
I hope this helps. |
Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
21 Sep 2003 11:56 PDT
Okay, I had thought you wanted columnists attacking CEO pay "on the
numbers." Basically, this was a $5 question (I make $3.75 net after
Google receives its 25% cut), and I thought the question was
adequately answered.
In that quotation cited, George Will certainly implies that excessive
executive compensation isn't morally sound. He uses a rhetorical
question to make that implication:
"According to Business week, in 1990 Disney's CEO made more in a day
than the average Disney employee made in the year. Is there an
economic or moral justification for that, or just a power explanation?
"
------------------
He's not a columnist or moralist per se (although he does occasionally
write op-ed newspaper articles), but investor Warren Buffett had this
to say about executive pay:
"I think it's demented; I also think it's immoral," he said. "By that
time you
ought to have settled loyalties and you ought to be thinking about
[setting]
the right example for the company, [rather] than whether you take
another 100 million [dollars] for yourself."
source:
"Buffett condemns executives' greed over options"
By Andrew Hill, Financial Times, May 5, 2002
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aaasurfergirl/message/6989?source=1
------------------
Michael Novak is a well-known moralist/writer. He raises some
morality issues about executive compensation in his article: "Is
Business a Calling?"
http://www.fpc.cc.tx.us/~CLASSES/OFSO1313/index3.htm
"There are two sound responses to the question of stratospheric
executive compensation. The first is that the most destructive passion
in any free society is envy. Anything that incites envy-or seems to
support the arguments of those moved by envy-is a danger to the free
society. Even the appearance of excessive compensation, seemingly far
beyond the bounds of common sense, injures both democracy and
capitalism.
With James Madison, I hold that the passion for absolute equality
is wicked and selfdestructive. Except in terms of equal standing under
the rule of law, equality is not a morally acceptable social ideal.
Yet, observation shows that business executives are blind to the
social destructiveness of current levels of compensation. Current
practices give the appearance of cozy collusion, in which executives
on one another's boards of trustees scratch each others' backs,
heedless of the sacrifices others in their firms are making. For the
sake of the moral reputation of business, executive belttightening is
desperately needed, and moral leadership from somewhere in business
must step forward. If the whole country is tightening its belt, to be
morally credible business leaders must also be seen to do so."
source: "Is Business a Calling?"
By Michael Novak
Source : Across the Board. 33(7): 40-44. 1996 Jul/Aug
http://www.fpc.cc.tx.us/~CLASSES/OFSO1313/index3.htm
---------------
Well-known CNN commentator Myron Kandel:
"I think there's something ethically and morally wrong for someone to
get richer by eliminating the jobs of hundreds or thousands of
employees, many of whom have been loyal and long-standing workers who
helped contribute to the company's growth and success."
source: "The sour taste of CEO pay"
http://money.cnn.com/2003/08/27/commentary/mkcommentary/commentary_kandel/
---------------
William F. Buckley:
" The other aspect of the affair is the sheer smell it gives off.
Critics of capitalism are always, forever, looking for scandalous
behavior, and defenders of capitalism are always, forever, providing
grist for their mill."
source: William F. Buckley, "Greed Abounding"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=128&ncid=742&e=8&u=/030919/45/5bx5s.html
Hopefully, out of all this, you can find something that you can use.
Regards,
juggler
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