So in your head it's OK for executive compensation to be high while the working man gets the shaft and has to lower his standard of life to the point it becomes a struggle to support his family. I don't see how this helps the economy what I see is an economy fixed so that the rich get richer and the poor get more poor.
This is wrong in so many places.
What kind of backwards, big brother world would need to exist for the rich to be forced to get poorer? I never understood this "rich get richer, woe is me" statement. Of course the rich get richer. They likely got rich by A) working hard B) living beneath their means, and C) investing their savings. You want to change that?
News flash, as you type this from your computer, with cold beers in your fridge, with a cell phone in your pocket, and 2 cars or more in your family. Your standard of living HAS gone up, and gone up big time. I have traveled the world, and what passes for 'poor' here would be wealthy in 3rd world countries. We are so wealthy as a nation even our 'poor' are spoiled. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve our most unfortunate citizen's education and standard of living, feed our hungry and nurse the sick, but get some perspective.
One of the great things about this country is our freedom. Our freedom to
make our own choices, about which job to take, about which school to go to, about what company to work for, about where to live. We are in control of our own destiny. These freedoms include the right to own property, which also includes the right to own companies, either outright, or partially through shares of stock in corporations.
Why is it you seem to begrudge the CEO of sears or GM his salary, but you never hear complants on how much Mick Jagger, or Tom Cruise or Micheal Jordan makes?
The fact is what the CEO of Sears makes is none of your business, nor mine. It isn't my company or yours. Saying what Sears "should do" for their worker is equally out of place. It's up to Sears.
Salaries are set by supply and demand, just like the price of Craftsman tools. The more civil engineers there are looking for work, the lower their salaries will be. If there are too few civil engineers, salaries will rise. You get to choose if you want to be a civil engineer or not. The more talented, hard working, and creative the CEO is, the higher his pay will be. If Sears wants to hire someone with more management experience away from some other company, Sears will have to pay the going rate for that talent. And on the other end of the scale, if Sears wants to hire a cashier with no high school diploma and pay the going rate for completely unskilled labor, then that again is up to Sears. If that cashier wants to make more money than that, then they should A) work harder, B) get their diploma, C) either advance in the company, or find a better job once they have better credentials. Notice none of that comes from the CEO's salary. It comes from the cashier's drive and ambition.
Have you worked 14 hour days and advanced in your company? Learned multiple functions of various departments like finance, sales, marketing, production? Did you work hard all through school and get good grades so you could go to a good college and have good credentials? We all make choices in life, and we all were all dealt different cards at the start, and we all ended up in different places. Don't think for a minute that gives you the right to go and take someone else's cards, or begrudge them the cards they are holding.
Lastly, how can the poor get more poor? Poor means no money in the bank, no assets. How can you have less than nothing? This is a nonsensical statement as well. It is born from seeing the rich man's possessions without appreciating the hard work and sacrifice that the rich man made to get there. It is born from being jealous of someone else instead of focusing on yourself.
Years ago in the company I worked at the job of service manager opened up. One of the nicest, talented guys (Mark) didn't even apply for the job. I asked him why. He told me that he didn't want the stress, the long hours. He had young kids, and only wanted to work the 40 hours. That's a valid choice. Who's to say whose life is better, the at home low stress family man, or the richer stressed out burn the midnight oil for his salary executive?
Mark knew that with more money came more hours, more responsibility, he knew that job wasn't just more money. It meant working harder. Something apparently not understood by some of the "working man' .
Lastly, there are some folks who are rich by virtue of being born into it, or winning the lottery, or being able to throw a baseball better than anyone else. Get over it.
At the end of the day, happiness doesn't come from the private jet, the 5 million dollar garage, or the corner office. It comes from you.
