The going rate • 20 September 2008 • The SnowBlog

The going rate

          Here's a little snippet from the news for you:
"During the last five years of his tenure as CEO of now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld's total take was $354 million." I don't want to get all Marxist about it, but that sort of thing is dangerous. You look at your salary and you wonder whether the guys on seventy-five million a year really are thousands of times better at their jobs than you. And if they get the big bucks for taking all the big risks, how come they can retire to a private island after a few years while their employees are queueing up at the dole office? Is it really true that you can't fill the top spots with the right people unless you pay those sorts of salaries? Or is it just a sort of Old Boys Club? And do you really want a boss who'd walk away if you paid him less than a million a week? 

When too many ordinary folk start noticing that the system awards a king's ransom to the people who lose them their jobs it's time for a few concessions. I fully expect to hear a fair bit of socialist, populist rhetoric in the coming months from our elected representatives. And I wouldn't even be surprised if those who attempt to control these things decide it's time to let the world have another Democrat president to lead the world's most influential economy - just until we all calm down a bit. 
Rob