C.E.O.’s have got us convinced that they are extremely necessary for a company’s bottom line. Look at the cult of Jobs or the cult of Trump or even the former cult of Iacocca. And what does it matter, in the huge companies they run, they are one amongst thousands and thousands of employees. Better to give them an extra million instead of giving everyone else a raise of a dollar an hour. Oh yes they’ve run the numbers.
But they keep getting that extra million and the lower employees keep getting passed up on raises so that today these C.E.O.’s are worth about 500 of their lowest paid employees.
And of course they’ll spin that, too. “It takes a village,” one of these leaders might say. “And you see, being worth 500 people makes me a village. What better to run such an important company but a village.”
Never mind that less than 500 people from their own company might be better tuned to expand the company than the C.E.O. “If they could, they would start their own company,” one of these leaders might say. When we know they might not have the capitalization backing them.
But we also know these C.E.O.’s are hyper competitive. Just look at Donald Trump playing that “Birther” card as an in with the tea party and thus trying to get a leg up on his Republican competition.
So when will these mega rich people begin demanding to be worth a town? A city? A metropolis?
Don’t sell their egos short. This will, unchecked, be their goal.
Real villages should speak up. When C.E.O. salaries keep going up, even when the company’s fortunes go down, there is something wrong. And, if they are worth so much, why must they hide some of their wages as bonuses?
I think C.E.O.’s are not worth a village. I would suggest that they be taken down to hamlet size but to many it’s unclear how many people are in a hamlet. So my definition is about 50 or less.
In one way I will accept a C.E.O. has something more to offer than a village. In unmitigated gall.
