"CEOs Are Overpaid
CEOs are paid too much for what they do; too much more than their average worker
By F. John Reh, About.com Guide
Pay for Performance
According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made 42 times the average hourly worker's pay in 1980. By 1990 that had almost doubled to 85 times. In 2000, the average CEO salary reached an unbelievable 531 times that of the average hourly worker."
Somehow, I think this may be contributing to the erosion of the middle class - I believe recent comparison indicates that by 10:00 am on Jan 1st the average CEO has made the same amount of money the average worker does by Dec 31st in the calendar year.
And while the above is definitely a contributing factor, much of the current condition (high tax rates, deteriorating infrastructure etc) is also caused by the fact that, for most of our lives the word balanced budget has been an unrealised goal for most western countries. Politicans have behaved in a way with our tax dollars that we would never behave with our personal credit. How many years can you max out your credit (cards, lines of credit payday loans) and increase the limit? Eventually you gotta pay it all back. Anyone look real close at the "how long it will take to pay off your credit card if you make minimum payments" on your monthly statement?
And - just my personal thought - if it was soft water season this thread woudl be growing much slower....