by Osden Coolidge

I don’t often agree with the AFL CIO, they tend to help their leadership more than their members and their heavy handed anti free market practices are harmful to all Americans, especially their members (in the long run.)

Don’t get me wrong, unions should have every right to exist and organize…..but businesses should have every right to fire them all if they go on strike or if there is a better way to do things for the business.  Let free markets decide, if the collective bargaining really is a bargain, not a strong arm tactic then great, otherwise they need to become more competitive.

Anyway-  back to the point-  one thing I agree with them on is the insane trend in recent years regarding executive compensation.

Take a look at this list of top paid executives at major corporations complied by ALF CIO.  What a ridiculous wall of shame!

Ten and twenty MILLION dollar salaries for executives who LOST money?!  This is crazy.  Any board who supports this and any investor who supports it is nuts.

People DO NOT deserve that kind of compensation unless they take RISK.  Bill Gates, founds Microsoft with a product that didn’t exist….no problem.  Steve Ballmer leaves his secure job at Proctor & Gamble to join Microsoft and invests his life savings in the stock….no problem.    Executives who have made six and seven figure salaries for 20 year corporate careers with NO RISK….crazy.  They dont deserve this compensation at all.

Now I know the argument…..”But if the CEO brings in $2 billion in profit, a $20 million salary is only a tiny part of that.”   Bull-  the CEO doesn’t make the profit-  its the 10-30,000 employees toiling under him who made the profit.  Wanna impress me –  go be Daniel Och or George Soros and make your $2 billion in revenue without an army of employees…then you deserve your cash.  Standing as the administrator of a huge machine of employees, brand and other resources is worth a lot…say several hundred thousand, perhaps a million or more in a good year.   A long period of good performance might be worthy of a nice couple million bonus to buy a retirement home and live in luxury forever.  But CEOs losing money and making $10,20 50 million?  Insane.

And dont even get me started on the bailout babies and thier scam.