On the Fact that CEOs Are Woefully Underpaid

Did you know that it's a fact that CEO Pay increased faster (from the '60s to 2000) amongst privately held corporations than it did amongst publicly held ones?

This is strong evidence that more corporations need to go private, IMO. Sky high CEO pay that decreases wages for the lowly worker being a good thing, of course. Sure, the people on the various boards taking care of their buddies is how science operates. Which is also good... but obviously not good enough.

Sure, we all want CEO wages pushed higher into the stratosphere, but public companies just aren't doing enough on that front, IMHO. I mean, according to Booth Business School economist, Steven Kaplan, CEO Compensation actually declined by 46% from 2000 to 2010, which totally outrages me!

My suspicion is that Socialist Bernie probably doesn't know about this and if he did I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't include it in his stump speeches. He's probably in favor of worker-owned co-ops where the workers share in the profits and upper management only makes a few times more than the lowest paid worker, for christ!

As opposed to thousands of times more. Which is the way it ought to be, of course. Obviously what we need is more privately owned corporations so the pay of CEOs can keep going higher. The sky ISN'T the limit when it comes to these masters of the universe. They might not deserve every penny, but so what?

You think worker pay should rise? Banish the thought. Yet, if Sanders or even Clinton gets in? It could happen. With Sanders it's likely. At least he'll push for it, because Sanders represents the politics of envy at its worst.

With Clinton? Less likely. But I don't think we should risk it. Which is why I'm voting Libertarian. Hopefully Gary Johnson will run. He knows that CEOs need extravagant pay. If it doesn't make your jaw drop and leave you dumbfounded and stunned the pay obviously isn't high enough. Even then I say keep pushing.

By the way, getting a bonus for doing a "bad" job, in that your company loses money... as many of the CEOs of Wall Street finance companies did (received big bonuses) just after the bubble burst (the one that caused our recent recession)? I say why the fuck would we want to punish CEOs for the mess caused by poor people taking out loans they weren't able to pay back?

Byline: This commentary was authored by Willis "I Love Strawmen" Hart. Champion of our underpaid CEOs. LLIN-174.