Great quote from the fast food workers strike in Chicago (salary, price)

[baileyvpotter]

Originally Posted by lenniel

This pretty much sums it up......

“If not $15, then something. I mean give us something. I work 36 hours a week and barely make enough to pay my rent, gas bill, light bill. It gets to the point where I barely have enough for lunch sometimes,” said Angel Richardson, 21, who works at McDonald’s. “I’m five months pregnant, what am I going to do in four months? I hope something changes.”

400 area retail, fast-food workers demand $15-an-hour minimum wage - Chicago Sun-Times

Umm...how about not getting pregnant when you're 21 and can't afford to have a baby? The reason you're 21 and prego is the same reason you're working at McDonald's.

Back to the original post and Prost's list of CEO's. Interesting enough Blankenfeld, Schultz and Burns
all lived in NY public Housing. Also, Oprah was born to an unmarried teenage mother - read about
her early life. U. Burns was also raised by an unwed mother.

[Chi-town Native]

IMO, it's completely irrelevant how people rise up to become CEOs. It's what they do in the job that counts.

They make those insane sums (talking Fortune 500 size businesses here) because most people simply cannot and will not do the job, which increasingly has little to do with actual product innovation and everything to do with mergers and downsizing strategy. The supply of such people is much lower than one might think.

Additionally, some studies suggest that a disproportionate number tend to share the personality traits of diagnosed sociopaths. This is because it takes someone fairly cold-hearted to eliminate hundreds or thousands or jobs while simultaneously accepting incredible sums of money as a "bonus" for doing this.

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by MassVt

I've worked in teaching hospitals for 30 years, so I'm well-acquainted with them. And I'd take their work ethic, and their integrity, over a typically-vain CEO any day of the week. The CEO has no idea of the work involved in becoming a physician, and couldn't handle the workload anyway.

When I go to any hospital seeking treatment, I could care less about the CEO, who likely doesn't know an IV from a doorknob.

You'd better quit while you're behind.

Yeh, those CEO's are such dummies, that's why they're in charge of billion dollar hospitals.

Again, people don't wake up one day and say "I think I'll be a CEO". It takes and incredible amount of work, sacrifice, risk, etc to get to where these guys and ladies are.

If you want to be upset over what someone gets paid for doing nothing, why don't you track down those Powerball winners and tell them they don't deserve it. After all, all they risked was a couple bucks and got lucky.

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by williepotatoes

Yeah, but the trend today is towards rock star CEO's with PR skills and svengali like qualities that can quell stockholders first and foremost. Their jobs are becoming less to innovate and more to rubber stamp the decisions of people below them while they rep those decisions to the world. Often being paid staggering sums in the process.

A bad CEO can help put thousands of people out of work and literally dump on millions of stockholders. And yet here we are in a thread where the villains are minimum wage workers who dare ask for a raise.

There are bad CEOs just as there are bad min wage workers. The difference is, bad CEOs have to report to a Board or shareholders and when things aren't going as planned, they don't last too long.
Granted, sometimes they get a nice severance package when they get canned but the same can be said for a guy who plays in the NBA, signs a mega contract and then sucks the rest of his career.

Should a CEO make $10 million a year? Not for me to say. But, should 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Tom Hanks or Jennifer Aniston make $10-20-30 million a year? For doing what exactly? What are they contributing to society? Their pay is much more out of line than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

IMO, it's completely irrelevant how people rise up to become CEOs. It's what they do in the job that counts.

They make those insane sums (talking Fortune 500 size businesses here) because most people simply cannot and will not do the job, which increasingly has little to do with actual product innovation and everything to do with mergers and downsizing strategy. The supply of such people is much lower than one might think.

Additionally, some studies suggest that a disproportionate number tend to share the personality traits of diagnosed sociopaths. This is because it takes someone fairly cold-hearted to eliminate hundreds or thousands or jobs while simultaneously accepting incredible sums of money as a "bonus" for doing this.

Couldn't agree more, especially with the 2nd paragraph.

[williepotatoes]

Originally Posted by lenniel

Should a CEO make $10 million a year? Not for me to say.

Then you shouldn't have anything to say about minimum wage workers, Jayz or Tom Hanks either. At least be consistent.

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by lenniel

You probably don't think doctors work hard either....After all, looks like a pretty cushy, well paying, white collar profession.

Interesting you mention doctors. Their pay is inflated due to doctors lobbying together (but wisely, not under the guise of a union - thus giving it blessing from conservatives like yourself) through strict occupational licensing creating unecessarily high barriers for well-trained foreign doctors from practicing here, through laws preventing nurses doing some of the basic tasks well within their training to do (at a far lower cost), from the amount of new MDs awarded per year (the same amount since 1980) creating an artificial doctor shortage, and on and on.

This is a major reason why our health care is far and away the most expensive in the world, yet these severe market distortions never seem to bother you guys.

A few fast food workers lobbying for a couple more bucks per hour, on the other hand...

[hjt123]

Originally Posted by lenniel

Should a CEO make $10 million a year? Not for me to say. But, should 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Tom Hanks or Jennifer Aniston make $10-20-30 million a year? For doing what exactly? What are they contributing to society? Their pay is much more out of line than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

What do lots of CEOs contribute to society? They figured out how to convince the stupid, bored, and lazy that they should buy their useless crap?

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by williepotatoes

Then you shouldn't have anything to say about minimum wage workers, Jayz or Tom Hanks either. At least be consistent.

Consistency is clearly not his strong suit.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by lenniel

There are bad CEOs just as there are bad min wage workers. The difference is, bad CEOs have to report to a Board or shareholders and when things aren't going as planned, they don't last too long.
Granted, sometimes they get a nice severance package when they get canned but the same can be said for a guy who plays in the NBA, signs a mega contract and then sucks the rest of his career.

Should a CEO make $10 million a year? Not for me to say. But, should 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Tom Hanks or Jennifer Aniston make $10-20-30 million a year? For doing what exactly? What are they contributing to society? Their pay is much more out of line than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Actors get paid equal to what society is willing to pay in ticket prices to see their movies.