Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Executive Pay

I completely oppose any kind of salary cap on CEO's and top executives. If a company thinks someone is worth the money, they should be able to pay whatever they want to hire that them. There is a high value on business experience, insight, and successful risks and rewards that Washington will never understand, because most of the politicians and lawmakers have never been in the private sector.
If a company is paying said executives too much, then they will have financial problems that will lead to their ruin. You can't continue to pay execs those large amounts if they don't produce. Sometimes you see a company purchased and ran into the ground while the execs loot the wealth of that company.
The failure of that company should be the result. Government loans or bailouts should not be given to those who have already proven that they can't run a company. People may loose jobs as a result, but there will be other jobs, and the human resources in our country should flow to the solvent companies that are well managed and producing what the customers want.
Targeted taxes and retroactive taxes on executives are a horrible thing. They interrupt the contract that was made when hiring the talent. You may not like how much money someone is getting in their bonus, But that was the deal. Once the government, President or anyone else starts changing the rules as we go they create an uncertainty where businesses don't dare operate. There is enough risk in business without navigating the shifting sands of government intervention all the time.

If contracts become unstable the eventuality is that all decisions will be settled by those with political pull. Then our great country will be no better than a two bit banana republic.

4 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more. C.E.O.s are responsible for billions of dollars of assets, including people's jobs and retirement plans. Given the complexity of a dynamic economy, they will get it wrong sometimes. Anyone who can't adapt will fail. I would much rather a company fail, than have a centrally planned economy fail and take everyone with it.

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  2. I agree with you, and what is even causing more grief and shreiking is that we now have a president FIRING CEO's and our country is okay with that. How is this a good idea? How can it possibly the business of the president to fire and hire (look what kind of job he has done for the whitehouse!) oh yeah, wait...the government is pretty much owning these companies. It makes me nuts!

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  3. I was so shocked to read that only 53 percent of Americans believe in Capitalism. Shocked. We have certainly failed in keeping our kids informed on what this country is all about. I know that colleges are flooded with anti-capitalists professors. They are turning the younger generation against business period. It is the saddest thing.

    I am on the same page as you Jane. I thank
    you for you voice and your courage.

    A contract broken, is telling us that nothing matters. I can't (but can) understand why no one went crazy that Freddie and Fannie still got to keep their hefty bonuses and also the Congress. It's appauling what is happening right before our eyes. These poor families that have been harrassed and made to feel like their work meant nothing, is just shocking.

    This is just the beginning. The government is growing like an out of control cancer right now. And it is making this country very sick.

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  4. And now that other business who took bailout money see that CEO getting fired they want to give their money back- and the government won't let them!
    Centralized control of the US economy-Priceless!

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