Neil Cavuto warns: Trimming CEO salaries will make us like the French

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192198,00.html

This ExxonMobil pay package thing landed me in a heap of controversy. Trust me, I'm not an apologist for big oil. I don't own a single share of ExxonMobil stock. In fact, not a single share of any energy company stock. But I do have a stake in something called "capitalism." It's a system that has its extremes, but a system to which I have as yet to find a better alternative.

I know Lee Raymond's 400 million is a lot of smackers. But keep in mind, most of that is in stock, and restricted grants, and a lot of that was given over the course of Raymond's 43-year career. Also keep in mind, Exxon is the most profitable company on the planet and that during Raymond's stewardship, Exxon made hundreds of billions of dollars. Some might even say, his pay is but a drop in a very big oil bucket. The stock grew more than five-fold — almost tripling the performance of the Dow.

Now, some say because Mr. Raymond's company makes a product vital to us all, his salary should be trimmed. I say, that's a slippery slope. You could say the same of biotech and drug companies. Should their CEOs' pay also be trimmed? Be careful what you wish for. All I know is I just came back from France where they're protesting the kind of free-market capitalism we practice in this country. I'd rather be more like us, with all our excesses, than like them, with all their problems. Here we can work to be Lee Raymonds. There, they're too afraid to even try.

[marmar]

1. Newsflash for you Cavuto, you humanoid pig beast:

Some of us don't think that's so bad!!!

[eleny]

2. Or maybe even like the USA some years ago

I don't recall seeing any American CEOs selling pencils on the streets back in the 60s. Bah!

[Hotler]

3. Bite me Neil.... eom.

[Deja Q]

4. Capitalism only works when those with the most don't influence the rest.

That's when it stops becoming capitalism.

It becomes something similar to fascism.

I don't mind people making shitloads of money.

But doing it by hurting others and influencing things just to hurt others... something about that just doesn't seem right.

[NorCalDem]

17. BWAHH!!

I love the hypnotoad!

[Clark2008]

42. You have the neatest sig pics - it's like trivia

That's David Garrison circa "It's Your Move," with Jason Bateman.

I watched a great deal more TV back then! :hi:

[Benhurst]

5. Does that mean we'll have national health? GREAT! NT

[WCGreen]

6. Exxon's Raymond and Faux's Cavuto....

[driver8]

12. Ha Ha!! Perfect! Hey -- that could also be Cheney and Bush!

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Get a life, Kneel, you smarmy RW creep.

[Redstone]

8. What a fucking idiot.

Redstone

[Schema Thing]

9. Question?

Would it be illegal to shoot this person?

[driver8]

14. If we can't shoot him, can we at least smack him around a little?

I'm not a violent person, but I think that might be something I would enjoy.

[swatterdebattedelune]

10. shareholders own companies - they can hire and fire

shareholders own companies - if ceos are paid too much - we can vote with our feet and sell shares. we all own companies, in our mutual funds and retirement accounts. by especially penalizing ceos of under performing companies who clearly have not earned upsized packages, we can send a message.

as much as i read the notes to france, our unemployment rate is 4.8%, not 11%. and our growth rate is higher than the negative or 1% growth seen since the 90's in france and germany. but ceos with free look-back options and packages not aligned with performance are disgraceful.

[lastknowngood]

16. Bull crap ceo pay is an insiders game of you push me and I'll push you up

the "stockholders have no say". If you think there is a really publicly held company in the big corps your living in a fantasy world. A few very large stockholders make all the decisions and the sheeple have no say at all.

[LiberalPartisan]

18. In theory but it never happens....n/t

[area51]

23. Our unemployment rate is a lot higher than 4.8%.

Many people can't find work any more. Many jobs are offshored or inshored. Our unemployment rate is probably around 12% or more.

[NorCalDem]

25. Duck and cover dude, you just brought on a shitstorm :) n/t

[tsuki]

28. Who knows what our seasonally adjusted, under employed, just

gave up unemployment really is?

[Zodiak]

34. Our real unemployment numbers are 11%

When we calculate it the same way the rest of the world does.

Also, we have not really had positive growth. Our housing bubble has been masking that.

There is much catching up for you to do.

Welcome to DU!

[Kellanved]

35. Try reunificating with a post-commuist economy

And try doing it without causing social unrest and widespread poverty.

Also, the West-German numbers still are excellent; Germany is still out-exporting the US.

[AllieB]

37. The true U.S. unemployment numbers here hover around 12%

Only people who are collecting unemployment insurance are counted in the unemployment numbers. Once their insurance runs out, they are no longer part of the statistics.

[pinto]

40. When's the last instance of shareholders firing a CEO?

[driver8]

11. Hell, I would love to live like the French.

A couple of hours for lunch each day, more vacation time, good food, good wine, beautiful country. I have been to France many times and I think that they have the right idea when it comes to "how to live."

Cavuto is an idiot. "I'd rather be more like us, with all our excesses..."
Yeah, whatever, dumbass. Personally, I am sick and tired of "us and all our excesses". Isn't that what got us into the sorry shit state we are in now?

[joemurphy]

15. I agree totally with what you say. Vive la France! n/t

[bucknaked]

13. Cavuto is one of the worst copy-readers I've ever heard!

So damn obvious where his writing comes from... and it sure ain't him.

[BeyondGeography]

19. Raymonds' pay works out to $144,000 per DAY

for the life of his career as CEO. Cavuto's moral bankruptcy is plainly displayed in the last sentence above, "Here, we can work to be Lee Raymonds." No one NEEDS to earn $144K per day, but let's extol the virtue of a country where everyone can strive to get what they don't need, right, Neil? They can also buy stuff they don't need, stuff food in their face when they're not hungry and consume more energy per capita than any of those poor French slobs can ever dream to consume.

We agree on one thing, Neil. Lee Raymond, with his cascading jowls of facial flab and his unconscionable greed, is indeed a role model. He's the perfect embodiment of American excess, in all its unsightly ugliness, you hopelessly misguided corporate suck-up. Those decadent French, sipping their drinks in the shade of century-old plane trees on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence, with nothing to look forward to but another summer of government-funded open-air performances of music, opera and dance, just don't get it, do they?

[smoochpooch]

20. Fuck You Cavuto!

Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You Fuck Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You! I Fucking Hate You!

[hatrack]

21. So who is this grinning colostomy bag, and why should I care?

Oh, yeah, Fox "News" - that figures.

:puke:

[Lindacooks]

22. Like the French, huh? What do you mean -

thin and happy? Eating the best food in the world? Getting great long vacations?

Sign me up!!

[alfredo]

24. he says that like it's something bad.

What a panty sniffer.

[judaspriestess]

26. whatever you yellow fanged toothed asshole

get your teeth bleached or something.

[itzamirakul]

27. So what do these CEOs DO with all that money?

For sure, people who make this kind of money can't usually spend it all in one lifetime, so they end up leaving it to their kids, who then try to spend it all while still under thirty years old.

I live in NYC where the rents have skyrocketed so that it is unbelievable, yet we have so many young (21-25 year olds) BUYING their own studio apartments ranging in price from $665,000 and up and not even in the so-called "best neighborhoods."

Then the kids spend their early years playing at being "artists" or opening little gourmet-style restaurants where the hubby plays at being a chef while wifey-poo runs the cashregister. The "celebrity culture" has taken over, especially in NYC.

Others are given "made for them" jobs at fashion houses or in tv stations where they suddenly pop up on screen as the latest news reporter. Degrees in journalism don't seem to matter. And many are here from other countries because family money gurarantees instant entry into the USA instead of having to play the old waiting game.

So these kids will all try to spend that money until they are about 35, then they will become CEOs in their own right and the cycle will begin again.

[BreweryYardRat]

29. A steaming piece of shit in the shape of a man...

I like capitalism and the free market, but NO ONE should be as rich as Lee Raymond for doing so little. It's outrageous.

[leesa]

30. Maybe because they don't want the unGodly mess we have Neil.

Unfettered capitalism is a disaster. Mr Piggy.

[Radio_Guy]

31. Making us like the French

would be an improvement over the capitalist swine we have running this country today.

[Initech]

32. Neil Cavuto is a corporate ass-kissing money whore

End of argument.

[trogdor]

33. I can play this game, too.

This ExxonMobil pay package thing landed me in a heap of controversy. Trust me, I'm not an apologist for big oil. I don't own a single share of ExxonMobil stock. In fact, not a single share of any energy company stock. But I do have a stake in something called "the internal combustion engine." It's a somewhat wasteful system that has its disadvantages, but a system of converting energy to motion to which I have as yet to find a better alternative.

Now, I could get in my car, turn over the engine, put the transmission into "drive", and mash the gas pedal all the way to the floor while still in the parking lot. This would be unwise, since this act would more likely than not result in a collision with one or more of the other cars parked there, with the attendent property damage and bodily injury. A more prudent method of driving would be to look carefully to see what might be in my path, and when the way is clear, gently press upon the gas pedal with the toe of my right foot. This way, I can go where I need to go without causing an accident, or at the very least, leaving a bunch of rubber on the pavement.

So is it with capitalism. We could just let Big Business run all over everybody, but that wouldn't be very responsive to the needs of society. For this reason, we have regulations which prevent corporations from doing things that, while it may be good for the corporations, isn't necessarily very good for the nation as a whole.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

36. My dream

I'll be somehow be declared an "illegal alien" and deported back to England, from whence my ancestors came way back when. Then the Brits will declare me persona non grata (1066 and all that) and send me over to Normandy. Sweet.

[ruggerson]

38. Is it my imagination

or does Cavuto look like a minor South Park character incarnated as an almost human?

[Minnesota_Lib]

39. Will trimming obsense salaries make us French? Oui. J/k

[Trajan]

41. Cooking with cream and drinking good wine ....

Will make you say 'sacre BLEU' ! ....

*clink* .... SACRE BLEU ! ....