Greed seems to have won
Greed seems to have won
To the editor:
I agree with you that it seems “Profits above everything”… What has changed is that CEOs are paid and incented way above what they were back before the ’70s. At most a president or CEO was paid maybe 10 times above the average worker at the company. But today some are 270 times higher than the average worker at the company. Also it is different if one builds the company from scratch and it took off. Then they should make top dollar. But some of these persons are in the positions because of the good old boys club, or they belonged to the right fraternity or went to a specific school. Some are in the positions only because they know how to speak to “Wall Street,” but have no real idea how the company functions or the real future of the company.
A large part of the problem is cronyism. The CEO is more concerned with stacking the board of directors with people that will agree them and agree to pay them more than their worth. The large institutional investors are looking for someone who will appease them, rather than someone who is giving them the honest answers they should be looking for.
At the end of the day, Greed seems to have won. Most producing CEOs are only around for when things are good … but can’t be found when other circumstances have changed. (Some are gone based on their decision while others are let go just because they couldn’t control everything and the numbers fell.)
The days of the person rising from the mailroom seem to be gone. And for others, they simply don’t have the right past companies or school names on their resume, even though they should be considered for the task.
I do believe that companies who use profit sharing incentives for all employees seem to weather rather well. It is better to have the majority of the workforce wanting to do the right thing in order that everyone shares at the end of the day. The simple and old rule is they will use company resources well, rather than squander them and this includes their time on the job as well. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 ESV
GRANT RICHTER – Columbia, Ill.