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- Time Warner having an average call wait time of 2 HOURS to cancel service vs 15 minutes to upgrade service.
You think this is different than the 90s? Did you ever have to cancel the "free" AOL account that came inside magazines?
If I remember correctly you had to travel to their corporate headquarters in person, wait in line for three days, undergo a complete physical and lie detector test, undergo a grueling interview six hour with their board of directors, then complete three Indiana Jones type tasks to retrieve a golden CD-ROM from a pedestal deep inside a mountain. I remember I finished everything but got rejected because I had on brown shoes with my suit in the final meeting instead of the required black and had to start all over.
I love the whole class envy thing. The typical Fortune 500 CEO has a career of complete, total, and absolute competence at everything they've ever done. Top-tier university education. The go-to guy as they worked their way up the ladder. The smartest guy in the room. They have a very high stress 24x7 job where they're typically a road warrior not sleeping in their bed very much.
Sure, there are bad CEOs out there and weak corporate governance that doesn't get rid of them but that is not the norm.
Exactly! The corporate pyramid has hundreds of spaces at the bottom, but that number diminishes dramatically at each step up. And each of those advances usually means turning your back (at least in part) on the people and standards that got you to the next stage. Credentials tend to lose their value at every stage of the process -- either because everyone else has one, or because they become old and stale. And for every candidate who makes it even close to the top, there are many more who are deemed "well-placed in their current capacity". From that stage onward, it becomes a defensive battle to avoid permanent severance due to "personnel retrenchments".
Welcome to the jungle.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 02-12-2016 at 08:41 PM..
They're taking more and paying less because they can. And then, some of the very richest, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett seem to be oh-so-philanthropic as they give away money, and dodge taxes, so they can feel good about themselves and choose to help where they want to help. But they don't want to dip into their billions to pay a fairer wage: Better Than Raising the Minimum Wage - WSJ Instead, they want to mess with taxes.
Again.
To heck with their "causes" and manipulation.
Let's acknowledge that going from earning 20x the average worker's salary to 300x is obscene.
KISS.
They're not paying enough. Period. The position millennials are in is largely due to the gluttony of the top. A "let them eat cake" attitude. I wonder how long the younger generation will take it.
They've been taking it like everything else....They have a choice, work for themselves or someone else. Don;t like the pay? The hours? The benefits? Start your own company!
CEO's may seem overpaid, but they have an ability to steer a corporation that others do not have.
Whether it's an 18 hr a day grind, or just having the right connections in the right places that can called upon in a crisis, they have an ability to be effective in running/growing/protecting a corporation.
Does anyone remember Lee Iacocca and how he turned Chrysler around in the early 80's? Or how more recently Jamie Dimon kept JPM alive in the midst of the billions in fines and "whipping boy status" among the banks from the credit crisis?
Or Jack Welch's years at GE?
These guys kept their jobs because the board of directors were to afraid to sack 'em.
I agree that CEO pay has gotten ridiculous, but I'm not sure how Bill Gates and Warren Buffet tie into this in relation to low employee wages.
Does Bill Gates even have any employees anymore? When he was at Microsoft were their workers considered underpaid?
Agreed. Bill Gates built his own company from nothing. Warren Buffett's salary has been at $1M a year for years, very far below what the standard is, especially in a company that big. Both made most of their money via equity. These are both self-made men, whose companies do not survive on being the lowest cost employer in the market.
The Boomers have entitlement in spades, there's no doubt about that, but you tagged the good guys OP.
A whole lot of CEO apologists have shown up, I see....300x compensation? That is gross and just says corporate malfeasance.
A lot of people that understand finance, economics and math showed up.
Not shockingly, the people that never bothered to learn these concepts have a high correlation to low wages and when facts are brought into the discussion all they are equipped to contribute is to call people apologists.
In fact, do you want me to tell you the big bad secret of whom the really big a-hole causing all the problems is?
It's you. It's me. It's most of the people in this country. We don't give a crap if the broom, underwear or hamburger is from...we care how much it costs.
We are just not going to buy the more expensive American Made broom when we can buy one made in China by a guy that is thrilled to be making $2/hour US. (If that)
CEO's are for the most part (there are some tools) merely a convenient target for general US attitudes.
Probably a waste of time but maybe somebody will clue in and make some hard life changes to get ahead instead of just whining about CEO's. Maybe blame the eastern bunny too....
Nowadays CEO's see themselves as part of the aristocracy as well as billionaire wanabees. The American aristocracy is now part of an international wealthy class that sees the American working class, their pensions, their medicare, and their Social Security as a burden that can be done away with.
The only talent that the modern CEO has is their desire to cut cost by moving your job to India and opening our borders at the same time. Cost cutting of this type is muscle cutting because the middle class is the muscle of our country. This is not the old talent of company building, it is profits through greed.
Nowadays CEO's see themselves as part of the aristocracy as well as billionaire wanabees. The American aristocracy is now part of an international wealthy class that sees the American working class, their pensions, their medicare, and their Social Security as a burden that can be done away with.
The only talent that the modern CEO has is their desire to cut cost by moving your job to India and opening our borders at the same time. Cost cutting of this type is muscle cutting because the middle class is the muscle of our country. This is not the old talent of company building, it is profits through greed.
Pat Buchanan calls it "Economic Treason".
That's pretty much it. Their primary talent is there ability to fire people and withdraw money from the company. Of course, they have to load up debt on the company's balance sheet so that there is plenty of money to withdraw.
At the end, what you have is a bankrupt company, lots of unemployed workers, shareholders crying for a bailout at the taxpayers expense, and some very wealth executives. Of course, the Bankers make out like champs getting all of their money up front. It is a fine economic model.
" The Wall Street business model is fraud. " - Bernie Sanders
Ncole1 has the math exactly right. You could pay the CEO zero and it wouldn't particularly impact the bottom line of the corporation. Corporations pay their employees precisely what it takes to retain them and keep them motivated, not one penny more. If you want to increase your pay, increase your worth to your employer.
This is straight class envy. Corporations pay that kind of money to attract the best possible talent. One bad decision by the CEO and the shareholder value of the corporation goes into the toilet. A good CEO is worth every penny. You can argue about corporate governance and overpaying bad executives who are tough to fire but that is independent of what the good ones are worth to the shareholders.
In my case it is class hostility and I'm confident that the feeling is mutual. And if you are part of middle management the only amount that gets increased is the face value of the "Dead Peasant" insurance policy.
I know absolutely nothing about ballet.
Shockingly, I don't have any strong opinions about ballet because I don't know anything about it.
Same with hockey, making pottery and knitting.
It makes me wonder where so many people with so little knowledge or education about topics get their hubris.
I'm guessing they buy it bulk at Walmart along with all the other crap made in China....while whining about how thar ain't no goodly paying jobs for them and their expertness on all things Kardashian.
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