McCain Has It Right on This Issue!

I sure have complained enough in previous posts about the absurd salaries and severance packages that corporations are giving their chief executives. It bothers me that, up to this point, no one else seemed to care. Now presidential candidate John McCain has proposed a policy on this topic will probably win my vote.

"Something is seriously wrong when
the American people are left to bear the
consequences of reckless corporate con-
duct, while the offenders themselves are
packed off with another $40 million or
$50 million for the road. If I am elected
president, I intend to see that wrong-
doing of this kind is called to account
by federal prosecutors. And under my
reforms, all aspects of a CEO's pay, in-
cluding any severance arrangements,
must be approved by shareholders."

Corporate CEO's receive over 36o times the compensation of their average employees, and they receive juicy severance packages, even when they are dismissed for having run a company into the ground. CEO's do have special talents, and many of them do work hard. But they put their trousers on one leg at a time just like the rest of us, and most certainly are not 360 times as valuable by anyone's measure. John McCain's proposed reforms are long overdue.

Now before all the "free market conservatives" jump on me, let me say this: human nature (call it greed) will cause any totally "free" market to be abused by a corrupt few individuals. In the absence of universal morality and fairness, a society must have rules, boundaries, and limitations imposed by laws to prevent that corrupt few from victimizing the rest of the society.

Now if we could only go after all those ridiculously overpaid entertainment folks and professional athletes...