Why do American CEOs get paid so much?

[phattonez]

For (too?) many it serves as both but it also serves as a basis for constant and increasing rent paying to the government.

So all that it took to save that revenue stream was hundreds of billions of dollars, and in the process screw over American workers who would have benefited from the correction. It was worth it for investors. It wasn't worth it for anyone else.

 

[Your Star]

Life doesn't work that way. What is unfair to one may be fair to another and visa versa. In other words in order to make what you think is fair for someone means that you have to make it unfair for someone else.

Besides, what exactly is "fair"? It's a subjective term so its an impossibility to achieve.

We should strive to make it work that way.

Also, you brought up the term fair.

It's morally reprehensible that the wealth is so unevenly distributed. We are the richest nation in the world. Our wages should reflect that.

 

[Kal'Stang]

We should strive to make it work that way.

Depends. :shrug: We should make sure that the laws apply fairly to all. But in a capitalist society how does one make things fair for all without making it unfair to others? (when talking about wages/money)

Also, you brought up the term fair.

Actually the OP brought up the term fair just below their graph.

It's morally reprehensible that the wealth is so unevenly distributed. We are the richest nation in the world. Our wages should reflect that.

Ok, so how does one make the wages reflect that? Make laws that take from the rich and give to the poor? Force them to pay higher wages? That won't solve anything. The rich will just raise the prices of the products that they control to reflect that which is taken from them and then everything ends up to being back to the way it was. And if you're wanting "fair" then making such laws would be unfair to the rich person. Or does that not matter because they're rich and can afford it?

 

[ataraxia]

No matter how hard you try, there will ALWAYS be something that is considered unfair. It is not something that can be gotten rid of. We can try and minimize the unfairness, but that is the best that can ever be done. It can never be eradicated.

Sure. But just because you can never have perfect, does not mean you can't have better and worse if you try. That's why humans created complex systems of law and order and justice and regulation and oversight. Despite its flaws, it has seemed to work a little better than the complete natural freedom of the law of the jungle.

 

[ataraxia]

Re: need for laws and regulation on child labor:

if the liberal has evidence I will pay him $10,000. Bet?? So your thesis is that as parents got richer they made their kids work more and loved them less but the govt stepped in and made it all better??

Yeah, absolutely. That was the experience not just in this country, but in every single industrializing nation. The Conservative does not seem to know his history very well.

The evidence:

"Church and labor groups, teachers, and many other people were outraged by such cruelty. The English writer Charles Dickens helped publicize the evils of child labor with his novel Oliver Twist.

Britain was the first to pass laws regulating child labor. From 1802 to 1878, a series of laws gradually shortened the working hours, improved the conditions, and raised the age at which children could work. Other European countries adopted similar laws.

In the United States it took many years to outlaw child labor. By 1899, 28 states had passed laws regulating child labor. Many efforts were made to pass a national child labor law. The U.S. Congress passed two laws, in 1918 and 1922, but the Supreme Court declared both unconstitutional. In 1924, Congress proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor, but the states did not ratify it. Then, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It fixed minimum ages of 16 for work during school hours, 14 for certain jobs after school, and 18 for dangerous work. Today all the states and the U.S. government have laws regulating child labor. These laws have cured the worst evils of children working in factories."
A History of Child Labor | Scholastic

Today, every modern developed country all over the world has child labor laws. As new countries today begin to undergo the process economic development, they quickly find they need such laws to prevent the worst abuses, like Nike making their kids work 18 hour days on the factory floor.

You're welcome. But if you keep this up, I may need to start charging for the tutoring in history. This is hard work!

 

[ataraxia]

Ok, so how does one make the wages reflect that? Make laws that take from the rich and give to the poor? Force them to pay higher wages? That won't solve anything. The rich will just raise the prices of the products that they control to reflect that which is taken from them and then everything ends up to being back to the way it was. And if you're wanting "fair" then making such laws would be unfair to the rich person. Or does that not matter because they're rich and can afford it?

Higher wages, progressive taxation, etc... there are lots of ways. It's puzzling that you think policy is so impotent to change anything. In every other developed nation in the world, there are policies in place to address this, and they clearly work. You don't have such ridiculous and unsustainable extremes of wealth and poverty. Not sure why the US has to be so different.

 

[James972]

. But in a capitalist society how does one make things fair for all without making it unfair to others? (when talking about wages/money)

the pure beauty of capitalism is that if you don't think your wage is fair you are free to quit and work for anyone who will offer you a fair wage. Do you understand? Do you understand?

 

[James972]

Not sure why the US has to be so different.

We're not communist, and we don't want the European standard of living which is 60% or ours. Redistribution discourages the giver and receiver from working obviously which is why 120 million slowly starved to death. What is your fascination with this ghoulish libcommie thinking.

 

[ataraxia]

We're not communist, and we don't want the European standard of living which is 60% or ours. Redistribution discourages the giver and receiver from working obviously which is why 120 million slowly starved to death. What is your fascination with this ghoulish libcommie thinking.

We're not capitalist either. I think you missed the memo- look through your Email. It came out sometime in the turn of the 20th century. It just wasn't working out.

 

[James972]

Today, every modern developed country all over the world has child labor laws.!

yes because without them most American parents would sent their kids out to work in factories 16 hours a day!! Thank God liberals in govt know better than parents!!

 

[ataraxia]

We're not communist, and we don't want the European standard of living which is 60% or ours. Redistribution discourages the giver and receiver from working obviously which is why 120 million slowly starved to death. What is your fascination with this ghoulish libcommie thinking.

Every car needs a gas pedal and brakes. Just because it's the gas pedal that makes the car go very fast doesn't mean you should get rid of brakes in all cars.

 

[James972]

We're not capitalist either. I think you missed the memo- look through your Email. It came out sometime in the turn of the 20th century. It just wasn't working out.

Europe had 60% of our GDP and USSR and Red China killed 120 milion with libcommieism


if Europe had 20% our GDP and Red China killed 300 million would that be enough to help you understand that libcommieism is not working out?

 

[ataraxia]

yes because without them most American parents would sent their kids out to work in factories 16 hours a day!! Thank God liberals in govt know better than parents!!

I don't know what you are trying to say here. But that is the historical fact. And left alone, it was getting worse by the day, not better. Every single developed economy on the planet today has rigorous libcommie child labor laws. And it's not because they don't know any better.

 

[ataraxia]

Europe had 60% of our GDP and USSR and Red China killed 120 milion with libcommieism


if Europe had 20% our GDP and Red China killed 300 million would that be enough to help you understand that libcommieism is not working out?

Then lobby to get rid of those libcommie child labor laws. You can get rid of Medicare and public schools while you are at it too. Get back to me with how things work out.

 

[James972]

Then lobby to get rid of those libcommie child labor laws.

No, we need to keep them because American parents are itching to send their kids out to work in factories 16 hours a day and surely would if not for liberal elites in govt!! We should outlaw parenting and turn our kids over to the state because forcing kids to work is just one of a 1000 evil things things parents would do if not for the liberal elites in govt!!

 

[James972]

And left alone, it was getting worse by the day, not better. Every single developed economy on the planet today has rigorous libcommie child labor laws. And it's not because they don't know any better.

NYTimes supports child labor so kids wont starve!!

In 1993, when Congress proposed the U.S. Child Labor Deterrence Act, which would have blocked imports made by children (if it had passed), garment factories in Bangladesh fired 50,000 children. Many ended up in worse jobs, like prostitution.

New York Times‘ columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column in which he claims that in some cases having children working in a sweatshop is a good thing [“Where Sweatshops Are a Dream,” 14 January 2009]. He submitted his column from Cambodia.

 

[gdgyva]

We should strive to make it work that way.

Also, you brought up the term fair.

It's morally reprehensible that the wealth is so unevenly distributed. We are the richest nation in the world. Our wages should reflect that.

do your skills reflect your desired wage?

i have no issue with my wages....havent for 25 years +

 

[ataraxia]

yes because without them most American parents would sent their kids out to work in factories 16 hours a day!! Thank God liberals in govt know better than parents!!

Ummm,... yeah, pretty much. I get the sense that the above is meant to be an attempt at sarcasm. But you finally got something right.

How do I know this? Because, there is one industry to which federal child labor laws don't apply: agriculture. So in states who have chosen not to adapt their own child labor laws, there is no legal protection for these children. And guess what has happened to kids in those states? Yep, the same thing that was happening to them at the turn of the last century: they are kept out of school and put to work 18 hours a day in the broiling sun.

Children as Young as 10 Can Do Farm Work in Some States | The Pew Charitable Trusts

Aren't facts fun?

 

[ataraxia]

do your skills reflect your desired wage?

i have no issue with my wages....havent for 25 years +

Let them eat cake, eh?

You wanna tell these kids to go to school and develop some marketable skills? Because most of their day and energy is spent just trying to find food in the dumpster, avoid abusive parents, and avoid drug, crime, and gang infested streets.

 

[gdgyva]

Let them eat cake, eh?

You wanna tell these kids to go to school and develop some marketable skills? Because most of their day and energy is spent just trying to find food in the dumpster, avoid abusive parents, and avoid drug, crime, and gang infested streets.

View attachment 67239232

Why hasn’t the state taken them from their parents who apparently can’t raise them?

Who said because you gave birth to a child that you get to abuse them for years with malnourishment, and lack of care?

We need to give these kids a chance...a real chance....

And leaving them with their birth parents is not doing that...

 

[ataraxia]

Why hasn’t the state taken them from their parents who apparently can’t raise them?

Who said because you gave birth to a child that you get to abuse them for years with malnourishment, and lack of care?

We need to give these kids a chance...a real chance....

And leaving them with their birth parents is not doing that...

People here don’t want the state to even pay for their healthcare or education. Now you want them to take over their care entirely? LOL! With whose money? The Koch brothers and Donald Trump?:lamo

 

[SDET]

ANSWER: America is a very corrupt place.

We used to be better.

Anybody except the most covetous people should only be concerned with what they themselves make. If you make enough, why should it matter what someone else makes?

 

[rickc]

because they can. organized labor has been gutted, and the hyper-rich are running the entire show now. what is amazing is that so many poor and lower middle class people vote for this and actively defend it.

for those who will respond with bitter, angry protestations that i may or not waste time responding to, let me give you something to think about. if you work for a corporation, your CEO would like nothing better than to slash operating expenses and to replace you with automation or to outsource your job. even in one of the longest economic expansions ever and after a massive tax cut, raises at my own company are low and the automation drive continues while the company makes gangbuster profits. if you think that you can't be replaced, yes you can. and when it happens, your CEO won't be wasting his evening on some message board defending you.

that probably won't do any good, but if it makes even one person think twice, i suppose that it was worth it. i'll leave you with this : the real divide is not race, religion, or regional, and it sure as **** isn't which Fisher Price My First Political Party you just love so much. it's socioeconomic. and to paraphrase George Carlin, friend, i can say with ninety five pus percent certainty that you probably ain't in that club.

only chance labor has against capital is organize. look back in history to another.period of income inequality the guilded.age and see what brought it to and end.

last.time the top marginal tax.rate was this low was the roaring 20's. same income inequality followed by the great depression.

we came close to the great depression recently. had the government not bailed.out the rich we.would have had a reset then. we are.just kicking the can down the road.

is a crash going to be the only way to fix this or will we realize it.is the tax code and fix it ourselves.

 

[gdgyva]

People here don’t want the state to even pay for their healthcare or education. Now you want them to take over their care entirely? LOL! With whose money? The Koch brothers and Donald Trump?:lamo

we have a LOT of people waiting for adoptions around the country

especially for healthy children

they dont have to all go into facilities...but those are around also....it is better than bad parents who cant feed, clothe, or care for their kids

so either we take them, or they continue to live in those conditions....your choice...which will it be?

 

[ataraxia]

we have a LOT of people waiting for adoptions around the country

especially for healthy children

they dont have to all go into facilities...but those are around also....it is better than bad parents who cant feed, clothe, or care for their kids

so either we take them, or they continue to live in those conditions....your choice...which will it be?

My choice is child labor laws, access to healthcare and food, and public education for them. Most of them should stay with their parents. Foster care, and even adoptions, are a mixed bag. Poor parents will still usually love their kids more than any foster parents can. They may just not have the means of supporting an education, or even food for them, because they can't get it themselves. I think it is the government's job to help them take better care of their kids.