Whatever the complaints of Anna Williams are about executive pay, she’s not being shaken down for the money on threat of imprisonment as is the case for government employee pay.

Frankly, when I see someone bawling about how much money top executives of S&P 500 companies make I suspect envy is burning in that someone’s heart.

On the one hand, one can say that, if the leadership in charge of the various institutions want to be fools, let them. But when we look at the incomes of the top leadership and those their employees, even the most libertarian among us knows there is something wrong. When we look at the severance payouts to failed top executives given the boot and note that the payout is more than the company’s employees can ever hope to earn in their lifetimes, something is really wrong.
Government intervention is not the answer; but there must be something we can do.
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Corporate governance is a problem with no easy solution. One idea is to make board membership a licensed profession. Another is to reserve a seat for a union rep or consumer advocacy group.

I’d point out that part of the problem is that corporate governance is regulated primarily by state law. There’s no better example of a race to the bottom.

The sense of stigma for what is perceived to be out of bounds compensation in the past included board members and the way that compensation was arrived at for executives. Those social expectations have changed and this is a big factor in how it is done.

“Hey, I work hard for what I have!” is perfectly true. It’s also insulting… for the exact same reason “Hey, I love my country!” is insulting: It implies that the listener doesn’t. Otherwise there’d be no reason to say it. It implies a bizarre alternate reality where society rewards you purely based on how much effort you exert, rather than according to how well your specific talents fit in with the needs of the marketplace in the particular era and part of the world in which you were born. It implies that the great investment banker makes 10 times more than a great nurse only because the banker works 10 times as hard.

You can reply that if some other field paid more, you’d have just simply switched to it and been equally successful, due to your smarts and determination. You know, like how the smart and determined Michael Jordan was equally successful as a basketball player (six titles, $70 million a year) and baseball player (batted .202 in the minors) and team owner (his Charlotte Bobcats are currently 4-28).

Hmm … wait a second. Man, it’s almost like Michael’s hard work and determination wouldn’t have made him rich if he hadn’t happened to have been born in the one place and one time in human history where a man could get rich throwing a rubber ball through a small metal hoop.