A cap on executive compensation for corporations

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Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
72,329
6,040
126
Originally posted by: 1prophet
Teach the children (future executives and shareholders) do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Some of the best teachers, when out of bread, were offered cake.
 

AreaCode7O7

Senior member
Mar 6, 2005
931
1
0
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.

The lines to get in to see a doctor would be a lot longer than the old bread lines used to be.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
thoughts: let the company owners aka shareholders vote and govt should myob

Do you even read (see Strk's post)? Do you even know how corporations work?

Hint: There is no such thing as a shareholder vote regarding executive compensation.

But the shareholders elect the Directors who set the executive compensation. So shareholders indirectly have a say.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.
Actually, all his points are valid. Regarding doctors, all the ones I know, and I know several, rather like the money.

 

SamurAchzar

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2006
2,422
3
76
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.

Thanks bozo, for letting us know what is the mindset among your homeless shelter.
 

AreaCode7O7

Senior member
Mar 6, 2005
931
1
0
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.

Thanks bozo, for letting us know what is the mindset among your homeless shelter.

If you didn't lurk before you joined you may not realize that Moonbeam's mystic sayings are his way of challenging people's assumptions, enticing them to think, and commenting on life from a different perspective - all of which result from a fairly brilliant mind. Also, insulting him won't necessarily win you points with most of the other posters who, while not always agreeing with him, value his contribution to the character and insightfulness of the forums.
 

SamurAchzar

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2006
2,422
3
76
Originally posted by: AreaCode707
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.

Thanks bozo, for letting us know what is the mindset among your homeless shelter.

If you didn't lurk before you joined you may not realize that Moonbeam's mystic sayings are his way of challenging people's assumptions, enticing them to think, and commenting on life from a different perspective - all of which result from a fairly brilliant mind. Also, insulting him won't necessarily win you points with most of the other posters who, while not always agreeing with him, value his contribution to the character and insightfulness of the forums.

Oh, so he's just trolling? It's funny, as my post was the first reaction to him I saw in quite a while. He usually goes by ignored. Probably too brilliant for us commoners!


 

AreaCode7O7

Senior member
Mar 6, 2005
931
1
0
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Originally posted by: AreaCode707
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.

Thanks bozo, for letting us know what is the mindset among your homeless shelter.

If you didn't lurk before you joined you may not realize that Moonbeam's mystic sayings are his way of challenging people's assumptions, enticing them to think, and commenting on life from a different perspective - all of which result from a fairly brilliant mind. Also, insulting him won't necessarily win you points with most of the other posters who, while not always agreeing with him, value his contribution to the character and insightfulness of the forums.

Oh, so he's just trolling? It's funny, as my post was the first reaction to him I saw in quite a while. He usually goes by ignored. Probably too brilliant for us commoners!

I'm guessing you think he's trolling because of the "The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are." I think the "you" there is more of a generic all of humankind type you, not you specifically, so if he's trolling it's more like he's trolling the universe.
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Originally posted by: gingermeggs
Intellectual discrimination is a justification for renumeration scales.
- what is the greatest surgeon in the world, without a hygienic theatre to operate in ?
That surgeon is only as good as the guy whom mops the floor or the patient dies of a secondary infection, but wait we can pay managers to kick his ass into line!
The scale is natural, it's been perverted by self-interest and childish greed- On all levels!

No, the surgeon is not only as good as the guy who mops his operating room's floor. He's as good as his intelligence, multiple years of education and continued refreshing of his skills keep him.

The other guy is as good as his ability to hold out his arms and grasp a stick with a wet sponge glued to the end.

Let's not get silly and start believing that the compensation of rocket surgeons and grave diggers should be equal because they both go home tired. "Intellectual discrimination" is the dumbest phrase I've read in a long time.

Excessive executive pay is a real problem, and their shareholders are ignored if they protest against it occurring (previous thread on topic).

Finally, I doubt that excessive pay is a problem that can be solved through legislation - it's a cultural issue mostly isolated to the United States.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Originally posted by: AreaCode707
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

4. More money will go to the tycoons who have a large share of these companies instead of going to the hired managers.

So basically that's absurd: you won't fix anything, you'll hurt the shareholders and the only guys you're going to get are middle-top management anyway.
Leave it to the shareholders to decide. If they think such a cap is right, let them install it, but forcing it across the board by legalization? That would never work, and it's naive to think it would.

Yup, it would be like taking money our of medicine. The only people who would become doctors are people who want to cure the sick. It would be a fucking disaster. The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are.

Thanks bozo, for letting us know what is the mindset among your homeless shelter.

If you didn't lurk before you joined you may not realize that Moonbeam's mystic sayings are his way of challenging people's assumptions, enticing them to think, and commenting on life from a different perspective - all of which result from a fairly brilliant mind. Also, insulting him won't necessarily win you points with most of the other posters who, while not always agreeing with him, value his contribution to the character and insightfulness of the forums.

Oh, so he's just trolling? It's funny, as my post was the first reaction to him I saw in quite a while. He usually goes by ignored. Probably too brilliant for us commoners!
Honestly, we don't really know what he's doing most of the time.

 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
126
Originally posted by: SamurAchzar
Eh, OK, so you capped the managers salaries. What would happen?

1. Managers becoming consultants - still doing the managerial job, but from their own company, invoicing the public company. Obviously, their company is private and only employees them, so there can't be any cap there;

Why, of curse they would. There's no way any measures could include such 'consultants' as well as CEO's. And companies are just itching to pay hundreds of millions to these people for no particular reasons; their getting the large sums has nothing to do with the fact of their being CEO's in a powerful position and network to abuse the system.

Do I need to go on? Oh, one more, what the heck.

2. More good managers will go to international companies;

Of course they would! Just as European CEO's have fled Europe for the far higher salaries in the US, they have no ties to the US; of course, this would only *match* those salaries.

OK, one more.

3. American companies will have an incentive to locate their headquarter somewhere else, as this is a managerial decision ultimately. In the age of globalization, the prospect of moving your headquarters to Asia or somewhere else is appealing enough as it is;

Of course they would- except that fixing this would only put us in line with other nations, now *we're* the ones creating the supposed magnet for CEO's who want crazy salaries.

So, you are in favor of *causing* the very problem you describe, of artificial incentives for companies to relocate.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
126
Originally posted by: AreaCode707
[I'm guessing you think he's trolling because of the "The beautiful thing about being an idiot is that you never see how stupid you are." I think the "you" there is more of a generic all of humankind type you, not you specifically, so if he's trolling it's more like he's trolling the universe.

Oh, I think the comment was pretty squarely aimed at Samur, not that I'm the official Moonbeam translator or anything.
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
22,914
2,359
126
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Something like this should be decided by the shareholders of the individual companies rather than the government.

If the government is the majority shareholder in the company (say after a government bailout), then I say yes.

+1
 

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
4,335
1
0
I don't think that a cap is necessarily in order, but maybe tighter regulation on how executive pay is determined might be reasonable to better prevent the conflicts of interests that supposedly occur between board members that are CEOs of other companies. The current pay is rather out of line compared to executive pay in other developed nations.
 

Train

Lifer
Jun 22, 2000
13,861
68
91
www.bing.com
Q: Why does a baseball player make 25 million in a single season?

A: Because dumbasses are more than happy to fork over $60 for two seats in the nosebleed section, $9 for a 8oz plastic bottle of beer, $7 for a shitty hotdog, and $90 for a jersey that cost $10 to produce.

Now take that analogy and apply it to any business.

People are happily buying all this stupid shit they dont need. Shit people are getting rich selling us bottled tap water. Fuckin WATER!

you can't blame the people selling it, because as soon as they go away, someone else will take thier place. Blame the people buying it.
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
8,999
109
106
Originally posted by: BigDH01
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
The ideas in this thread are laughable. Spidey, are you really that dense?

I say, don't cap it. Tax the flying fuck out of it. 80% tax rate for anything over 10MM of executive compensation.

That, or have a minimum of 10-year vesting periods.

Pretty much this. The concern is the extreme concentration of wealth. According to the academic papers I've read comparing the United States to the rest of the world, the best way to prevent the concentration of wealth is to impose very high tax rates on the extreme earners. At one time, the United States had much higher taxes for the highest tax brackets. In 1956, any income earned over 200k (or about 1.56M in 2008 dollars) was taxed at 91%.

Barring a return to this kind of progressive taxation, I would support this. Any CEO would be incentivised to raise his own pay, but this rule would allow CEO greed to float more boats than simply their own.
 

shrumpage

Golden Member
Mar 1, 2004
1,304
0
0

I think your car is too expensive, you should have to drive a metro LS.

Your house is too big, no more then 3 bed rooms at 2200 sq foot.

47" is too big for a tv, the should be no more then 42."

Piecing your tongue serves no purpose, plus can lead to medical problems, it should be banned.

I think you make too much money, 1 million take home is enough for anybody.
 

frostedflakes

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2005
7,925
1
0
I don't think the government should cap exec pay, but I wouldn't have any problem with regulations that give common stockholders much more power in deciding how much compensation executives should receive.
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
thoughts: let the company owners aka shareholders vote and govt should myob

Do you even read (see Strk's post)? Do you even know how corporations work?

Hint: There is no such thing as a shareholder vote regarding executive compensation.

But the shareholders elect the Directors who set the executive compensation. So shareholders indirectly have a say.

Really? Let me know how ~30% of all shares being proxy voted will ever hope to over-turn ~70% of float.

It's amazing to me how ignorant people are of how the capital markets work.
 

SamurAchzar

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2006
2,422
3
76
I wonder how would 91% of taxes work in a consumer driven economy such as the USA of today. I also wonder what would happen to all those tax dollars collected. And then I wonder if a country can maintain such taxation in the world of today, and not find itself economically isolated.

Don't forget many talents immigrated into USA for the possibility of earning big dollars. Even if that's just a dream for most, this dream keeps much of the USA tick.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
126
Originally posted by: shrumpage

I think your car is too expensive, you should have to drive a metro LS.

Your house is too big, no more then 3 bed rooms at 2200 sq foot.

47" is too big for a tv, the should be no more then 42."

Piecing your tongue serves no purpose, plus can lead to medical problems, it should be banned.

I think you make too much money, 1 million take home is enough for anybody.

Nice fallacies. Of course the issue being rasied to keep people from buying 47" TV's.

When you plug in the real facts - the drain on the economy concentrated wealth causes - it sounds a lot different.

'Owning 2,000 media outlets and having monopolies in markets is too much. You have to let others own some too for diversified ownership'. Oh the outrage!

'Having $5 billion and owning private planes and yachts and two sports teams, you have to pay an extra $100 million a tear in taxes for relief for other taxpayers.' Oh the outrage!

'Sucking hundreds of millions out of money for incenting an hiring others because you stacked the compensation board is too much. You get a 1/3 pay cut'. Oh the outrage!

Why are you so concerned only with CEO's and not the the other 99.99% of people at all?
 

ebaycj

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2002
5,418
0
0
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
thoughts: let the company owners aka shareholders vote and govt should myob

Do you even read (see Strk's post)? Do you even know how corporations work?

Hint: There is no such thing as a shareholder vote regarding executive compensation.

But the shareholders elect the Directors who set the executive compensation. So shareholders indirectly have a say.

They should have a direct say, IMHO.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Originally posted by: Train
Q: Why does a baseball player make 25 million in a single season?

A: Because dumbasses are more than happy to fork over $60 for two seats in the nosebleed section, $9 for a 8oz plastic bottle of beer, $7 for a shitty hotdog, and $90 for a jersey that cost $10 to produce.

Now take that analogy and apply it to any business.

People are happily buying all this stupid shit they dont need. Shit people are getting rich selling us bottled tap water. Fuckin WATER!

you can't blame the people selling it, because as soon as they go away, someone else will take thier place. Blame the people buying it.

I thought it was because of the union insuring equitable distribution of company profits to labor. You know the unions you guys hate so much for everyone else.
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
Originally posted by: ebaycj
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
thoughts: let the company owners aka shareholders vote and govt should myob

Do you even read (see Strk's post)? Do you even know how corporations work?

Hint: There is no such thing as a shareholder vote regarding executive compensation.

But the shareholders elect the Directors who set the executive compensation. So shareholders indirectly have a say.

They should have a direct say, IMHO.

They should, but they don't. There is no tie between ~70% of all shareholders and the BOD.