The Wrong People Care About CEO Pay, And They Care For The Wrong Reasons

Forbes ^ | 07/19/2013 | Jeffrey Dorfman

[Oberon]

...and misleading and self glorifying.

If that's as far as it goes, yes. Still, even within the framework of a vibrant, living faith in the Lord, this message about how to approach the world has its place.

A better way to say it might be "Don't look for anyone else in the world to take care of you if you won't be bothered to take care of yourself." That's a Biblical message (reference II Thessalonians 3:10).

[HiTech RedNeck]

Living as God desires is a total oxymoron compared with worldly philosophy. You give yourself away to God. You stand for yourself before the world. Part of giving yourself away to God is being willing to accept the graces He puts your way; they are called opportunities.

Be very careful, sir, about cloaking self-glorification in theological terms. It is an endemic sin and will not go away entirely before entry into heaven.

[Durus]

Yes. If they are paid the same isn’t that unfair?

[Buckeye McFrog]

If you think Forbes is bad try Nanny Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek. Pravda had a friendlier take on the free market.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I have a relative by marriage who, I am sure, would have been fired at least 38 times in his life had it not been for the United Auto Workers Union.

Caustic, rude, disrespectful, arrogant, insubordinate to his boss, did his own thing and nobody could tell him otherwise, etc. etc.

[Stentor]

If they are a private company, then pay whatever the board of directors and shareholders wish. Otherwise, why shouldn’t the leaders accept a GS rating and the proper government worker pay package? It would be more honest.

Then there are the public companies whose board's and management's job is to sell shares to the suckers by managing perspective so that options can be exercised and stock sold before the stock price tanks. That management of perspective is being funded by your future indebtedness through the Federal Reserve.

[mjp]

Employees (hopefully) create value for their employers by performing tasks that increase profits. Employees then negotiate to capture as much of that value as possible in various forms of compensation (salary and benefits). 

In a free society average money wage rates are determined by a free market in labor and the ratio of the demand for labor to the supply of labor. They are not determined by the Marxist exploitation of labor doctrine of subtracting profit from value added.

According to The New York Times editorial, the median CEO pay in 2012 for the 200 largest public companies was $15.1 million. Is that too high? They think so, but the truth is unclear. Just because The New York Times presents us with big numbers ($15 million) does not mean the pay is not being earned.

The productive role of and the benefits from the labor of businessmen and capitalists are:

1) creation and coordination of the division of labor
2) creation of the demand for labor and wages
3) improvements in the efficiency of the division of labor
4) improved efficiency of the division of labor causes rise in real wage rates for the average worker
5) profits are attributable to their labor
6) responsible for continuous capital accumulation, which leads to economic progress and increasing prosperity and higher standard of living for the average worker
7) raises productivity of capital goods
8) ensures sufficient relative production of capital goods on the basis of saving
9) raises the productivity of labor which raises real wage rates of the average worker

[Oberon]

Be very careful, sir, about cloaking self-glorification in theological terms. It is an endemic sin and will not go away entirely before entry into heaven.

While I appreciate your apparent concern for my soul, I am convinced that the Lord has the matter well under control.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If you ignore those who God sets up to warn, those who warn are off the hook but you ain’t...

[Soul of the South]

Mr. Arthur O. Sulzberger’s pay for the last fiscal year was $5 million (per Yahoo Finance). Mr. Sulzberger is Chairman and Publisher of the New York Times. The Times published the CEO story mentioned.

What is fair compensation for Mr. Sulzberger? Perhaps Mr. Sulzberger should set the example for the rest of the CEO’s in America and adjust his salary to a “fair” level.

Wait, could it be Mr. Sulzberger believes $5 million per year is fair for his performance? After all the Times lost money in 2011 and its net income was a whopping $133,000 in 2012 on revenue of $1.99 billion.

If the NY Times wants to have any credibility on the subject of CEO pay, it should first address the compensation of its leader.

[Oberon]

If you ignore those who God sets up to warn, those who warn are off the hook but you ain’t...

Granted. Point taken.

Now that I've conceded, could you please go take somebody else's post out of context and preach at them instead of me?