Mr.Bush and his administration remind me of many CEOs who have

[KlatooBNikto]

contempt for those who work for them.Corporate CEOs, seem to believe that, because they wield so much power over their employees,have managed to make time stand still. Mr.Bush,Cheney and Rumsfeld, think they are a cut above us mere mortals;they owe us the citizens,no accountability and do not owe any explanations for any actions they take.

I believe that it was Norman Mailer who once said that "Democracy implies that there is a modicum of honesty between the rulers and the ruled".That basic principle has been violated from day one of this Administration.By violating that fundamental bond, they have taken us,the richest country in material terms, on the road to moral bankruptcy.

[mopaul]

1. gangsters always look down on the average working schmo

and feed off of them like vampires. it's as close to serfdom and a monarchy as we can legally get.

[B Calm]

2. Compare Your Salary to the CEO

http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/ceou/database.cfm

[marmar]

3. And perhaps...

Financial bankruptcy as well. It's Enron, the government version.

[leveymg]

4. And far along the road to financial ruin, as well, judging by the

growing deficits and current accounts imbalances.

Perhaps Calvin was right that ostentation is a sign of sin.

[KlatooBNikto]

5. The Japanese corporations are proving Calvin's maxim every day.

At Toyota, one of the world's most admired corporations, the differential between the CEO's compensation and thw orker on the assembly line averages about 10 to one.At General Motors, it is more like 100 to one.

[leveymg]

6. That doesn't include the stock options, though.

I'm sure that drives the ratio far above 10/1.

[KlatooBNikto]

7. When a CEO performs well and adds to the value of the corporation,

his derving benefits from his vision and work looks like fair compensation to me. Toyota's steady climb over the past fifty years is a modern day wonder.The corresponding decline of GM is also a modern day wonder.The funny thing is that GM's big wheels get bonuses and stock options even when the company is tanking.That doesn't happen at Toyota.

[leveymg]

11. Are you aware the two companies are cross-owned?

But are not, obviously, under common management.

I agree with your central point.

[KlatooBNikto]

16. GM and Toyota have formed a joint venture called NUMMI

but so far as I know it is not connected to Toyota.

[KarenS]

8. OH YES!!! I agree, the kind of CEO that is simply in the 'business'

of being a CEO,,,, educated but not experienced in the business he/she is leading,,,, arrogant, entitled & all-powerful, answers to no one, bestows favors on the 'chosen ones', and absolutely looks down on the peons, sets off on half-baked ill-planned schemes and declares projects/endeavors a 'success' whether they are or not, planning his/her 'golden parachute' is very important to them !!!

I have said Bush thinks he's a CEO from the beginning of his reign.

Can you tell that I worked 18 years in a Fortune 500 multinational company???

:puke:

[KlatooBNikto]

9. You could have been talking about Carly Fiorina, a con woman,

who took over H-P, one of America' most admired high technology corporations with no apprecaition for technology whatsoever and promptly ran it to the ground. I have been a CEO myself of a small to medium manufacturing corporation for thirty odd years and because of the bonds I have established my people and their families see many of our current crop of CEOs as nothing but braggarts.

[KharmaTrain]

10. It's The Repugnican Way..."Hands Off Management"

It's "give ulcers not get them" and "do as I say, not as I do". I worked in this environment and was amazed at how these people succede despite themselves. Mostly since they bail each other out.

The mantra is "ye who has the most toys/money wins" and there's no limits or boundries in how this is accomplished. And it's all short-term...you rarely hear these people speak of 3 or 4 years...always either now or 10 years.

This time reminds me of the robber baron era of the late 19th century...the greed and arrogance that led to the growth of the labor movement. Since the 80's, this country has let the corporates run wild in hopes their riches would trickle down. Many are seeing this hasn't happened...just how much longer will people take being crapped on?

[opihimoimoi]

dupe

[opihimoimoi]

13. "How much longer?" We have gotten used to it....

Prolonged famine does the same thing, food not normally eaten during good times becomes established...so when the famine is long gone, the famine food remains popular...

so it is currently....they crap on us for a long time now...and it has become established to the point of reaching real pain and yet we do not scream as loud as we should....Have we lost our collective Voice? Are the screams being muted? Stifled? Compromised?

[KharmaTrain]

15. Sadly It Seems So

We're in an age set up by nearly 20 years of corporate expansion and "deregulation"...each step of the way removing itself one level from accountability and humanity. Also the threshold of that pain goes from "nagging" to "tolerable" and it gets ignored by the next shock to the system.

One mantra of this past generation has been self indulgence and lack of personal responsibility. It's so pervasive to deny, blame or avoid that it's a virtue when someone does it blatantly. I almost feel like my parents...who were depression kids and always screamed that my generation had it "too easy"...and to say the same thing about a lot of the 20-30 year olds who populate dittohead-dom or are just tuned out except for Scott Peterson or Survivor.

[AzDar]

12. He's always reminded me of a corporate "raider" ; taking a company

for all it's worth, breaking it into bits, selling off and draining it's resources for his own personal gain, and leaving the exsanguinated corpse for the unfortunate employees and stockholders
to clean up.

[90-percent]

14. one hand washes the other

I've seen executives leapfrog from one company to another. They wreck one, and just before their bizarro world leadership collapses the company, they spring up at a new place and wreck that one. And collect bonuses for doing it.

Quite a self serving buddy system they've got there. How many yachts and vacation homes and Hummers does one need to be happy? (Which I think most of these greedheads aren't. They don't have enough humainty to know how to be happy)

-85% nitro jimmy