Instead of limiting executive pay to $500K - which has a nice populist

[question everything]

sound but apparently will be hard to enforce - we should enforce a cap on the multiples.

Until Bush was sent to occupy the White House, the ratio between salaries of top executives and average pay of the same organization was around 40. It still is in Japan.

But in the past 8 years that ratio jumped to 400 and above.

This is what we should promote. Thus, if an average salary at company X is $25,000, no top executive should earn more than $1 million which, really, should be plenty. If they cannot afford it, they can sell their McMansions in Florida or Colorado, or get rid of the trophy wife.

[liberal N proud]

1. It just became obscene during the bu$h years

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I don't think all f that ratio increase happened in the Bush years.

It probably started with Reagan, and continued through the Clinton era, when all the boy geniuses were getting rich on Wall Street.

[question everything]

3. You are probably right. But then it climbed steadily

during the Bush years when "greed was good.'

I think that during the Clinton years people became rich through stock options of start ups, stock options that were given to everyone, including secretaries and janitors.

[sandnsea]

6. It did

Until we take this all the way back to Reagan, we aren't going to make any headway on getting substantive change. The bubbles of the 90s didn't help working people as much either, but at least they weren't a fabricated ponzi that was built by manipulating the poorest in the country.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. The age of the celebrity CEO started it all

where instead of business heads they became rock stars. Of course their enrichment meant their had to be some trickle down to other high level executives, and MOST IMPORTANTLY the BODS, as these were the guys really abrogating their fiduciary responsibilities, but then they were robbing the till, too.

I like the idea of median salary multiplier.

[Ceela]

5. I hadn't thought about that...

How long has the celebrity CEO thing been going on I wonder? I guess Trump started that?

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Iacocca?

[question everything]

8. Iacocca started with a one dollar compensation

but I think that after the first year, or so, he joined the ranks of the rich and privileged.

(I may be wrong, will look for other DUers to set the record straight).

[AngryAmish]

9. Ever hear of Henry Ford?

Rockfeller?

Rothschild?

[Occam Bandage]

19. Messrs. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and the like send their regards,

and inform you that such has been going on for well over a century.

[Telly Savalas]

10. What makes that any easier to enforce than the $500K limit?

[question everything]

11. They are not going to enforce the $500K. They will rely on what the banks

tell them.

But I think with a multiplier it will make a better sense and they will have to provide more data, which will make it more difficult to fudge.

[KakistocracyHater]

12. anchor exec pay to 100% more than average worker salary

((((((((((((*)))))))))))))

[question everything]

13. I suppose 100% is "good" compare to the 400 in many financial institutions (nt)

[KakistocracyHater]

14. ah but the markets have NEVER BEEN FREE

so you think that no one would work for less leaf lettuce but with more cache?

[Hansel]

15. They should raise the top income bracket to 90% just like it use to be. n/t

[Name removed]

16. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[biopowertoday]

17. *LOTS of loopholes in that exec. pay proposal. some

articles were posted on du about this.

[Uzybone]

18. LOL. How is this different from limiting thier pay?

In fact its worse. They will find lots of loopholes in this proposal.

[harun]

20. You had me till trophy wife

Some things I just can't compromise on.

[trudyco]

21. You'd have to plug loopholes, like not changing the average

pay by hiring third parties for the lowest paying jobs, slipping in perks that aren't counted, etc. And what about golden parachutes? This should be for all the highest paid positions, too, so they can't hide behind a title.

I thought that was a good idea awhile back ago. Give government contracts to firms that adhere to this only. Give higher priority to those firms who use firms that also adhere to this.

The 90% bracket for taxes sounds good, too, except you'd have to plug even more loopholes in that.