Charges of "liberal media!" against South Dakota's press generally make me snort Cheerios out my nose. But if I were a tremulous conservative, blog posts from not one but two South Dakota reporters might set me shouting about commie cahootsification in our pinko prairie press.
First, well-read Yankton reporter Nathan Johnson finally gets his head above flood water long enough to return to broader political ponderings. He hammers on the fundamental injustice of CEOs averaging 28% raises while their workers (i.e., the rest of us) average 3% raises (raises? where do I submit my résumé?). Johnson notes that such economic inequality destabilizes the economy and stymies growth. He wonders how we can keep handing the rich bankers bailouts and bonuses when that wealth fails to trickle down to the masses in job creation.
Then telecommuting journalist Denise Ross (again, where do I submit my résumé?) takes and shakes the podium over the fact that real executive pay has quadrupled since the 1970s while real pay has stagnated for 90% of us. Ross sees in this inequality an entitlement mentality that threatens the American dream:
The story is the same in boardrooms across America, from dog food makers to toilet paper manufacturers. The stakes go beyond the paychecks of CEOs and the rest of us. This trend gnaws at the very fabric of the American promise of equal opportunity.
...When the rich send their children to private schools and set them on a glide-path to the same largess they have enjoyed, what chance has your kid got at the CEO job? The American dream becomes not about effort and perserverance. It becomes about who's your daddy. Suddenly America looks disturbingly like the European monarchies we were created to scuttle [Denise Ross, "Jobs and Concentrated Wealth and the Debt Ceiling," Republic Insider, 2011.07.08].
Oh, that darn liberal media, trying to alert us to threats to the Republic. How dare the press hold America to its ideals of progress and equality?
So what's the big deal about two liberals (who happen to be in the "mainstream" media where liberals tend to congregate) whining about someone making more money just because they've worked harder and applied themselves more than someone who makes less? Old news, Cory. I know you're a greenie, but this recycling bit is getting a little old.
When "the rest of us" decide to get the education required to earn big bucks, apply the ingenuity required to get the big bucks, and work the 60, 80 and 90 hour work weeks that those evil rich people usually work, then maybe we, too, can be "entitled" to those big bucks.
Until then, if we don't own the company or contribute to the company in a big way that the owners of the company believe warrants a large salary, WE AREN'T ENTITLED TO ANYTHING JUST BECAUSE WE WANT IT.
By the way, I should point out that what you call "equality" is NOT an American idea; quite the opposite, actually. What you call "equality" is egalitarianism, more of a Marxist ideal. Marxist ideals are the polar opposite of American ideals of equality of opportunity (not outcome, which requires stealing from one person to give to another), personal responsibility, the free market, private and public morality, hard work, and limited government.
You should try embracing the values of the country you were born in, instead of embracing values that are not only the opposite of those of your country but which have been proven over and over and over around the world to produce mediocrity at best and usually make a mockery of the idea of freedom.
Go get some exercise, Bob.
No one here is embracing unAmerican values, Bob. Johnson and Ross are very concerned about preserving American ideals and asking why CEOs get 28% raises while workers get 3% raises. You reply with your usual distracting invective. Answer the real questions.
Related, h/t mtcowgirl: http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2011/06/politics-101-for-the-far-leftlessons-1-thru-9.html
Bob, I have one question: if there were no workers, then, explain to me how the corporations would make a profit or get anything accomplished? That leads to the next question: if there were no workers and a corporation could not get anything accomplished, then, how would those "hard working" CEOs make a profit?
Does the Declaration of Independence have the line "All men are created equal"? Or was that a Marxist rewrite that was put into the school history books? I think our founders wanted equality or they would not have put that line in when they declared their independence from England. If I am wrong please correct me.
For Bob Ellis's edification. (Of course it comes from a distinguished American Philosopher who was proud NOT to be a Christian, so I imagine Ellis will give him short shrift.)
"First of all: what is work?
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.
The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.
The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given.
Usually two opposite kinds of advice are given simultaneously by two organized bodies of men; this is called politics.
The skill required for this kind of work is not knowledge of the subjects as to which advice is given, but knowledge of the art of persuasive speaking and writing, i.e. of advertising."
— Bertrand Russell
(I offer that excerpt by way of full disclosure, considering what I do for a living. I always say that if I didn't make ads, I'd have to get a real job. I'm only half kidding.)
Anyway, the essay doesn't start with the above paragraph. Here's a link to the whole thing for Bob's perusal, should he perchance care to enjoy a REAL logician's writing:
http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html
Bob,
I've got to ask. Are you trying to be South Dakota's version of Stephen Colbert?
The legacy media have worked this story for quite some time, but with people thrown into such a panic over the charges of Marxism, socialism, and a homosexual takeover to impose an oral age upon the digital one, the significance has not taken. It is encouraging to see regional journalists take up up the facts: 0.1 % of the people getting 10 percent of the national income; 1% getting 10%; and 10% getting 80% of the income. The comparative figures on who owns the nation's wealth runs along similar ratios.
Historians of the democratic revolution, not the Marxisr or socialist, mind you, but the democratic revolution that drove the invention of America (Edmudo O'Gorman said America had to be invented before it was discovered) is analyzed by what percentage of the European aristocracy owned what percentage of the wealth. At the time of Reformation/Revolution 5% owned 95% of the wealth. That figure is the most frequent diagnostic ratio that explains the driving force toward democracy and the notions of liberty, equality, and justice.
Our reversion to those feudal distributions of wealth and power gained momentum when, under the constant lobbying of corporate and business interests, anti-trust were relaxed to the point that corporations had the unbridled power to create the Great Recession, the Great Mortgage Fraud, and now the disenfranchisement of labor unions.
When the local media begin to understand and pick up the story that distribution of resources is a parallel to distribution of power, perhaps an insurgency is not far behind. Students of democratic revolution have consistently posited that the psychology of revolt and insurgence on the democratic side is driven by the manifest demonstration of who has the power to deny equality, deny liberty, deny an influential voice, and deny justice.
If a CEO makes 8 million a year, works every day 16 hours, he's making $1,370 an hour. Can anyone really say he has worked harder, applied himself more and deserves it? You can't tell me these salaries are being approved by stockholders, but by a board disconnected from the reality of most people. This elite class is being given the resources and using that power to protect itself. Someone has to buy Paul Ryan his $350 glass of wine.
Oh so tiring all the time. Any body really think an uneducated floor sweeper who never applied himself in school is as valuable as the visionary CEO? Who can bring down the company or make it successful and a stable long-term place of employment?
The question, of course Troy is, "valuable to whom?"
How many CEOs are actually visionary and how many are copy cats? How many CEOs get their jobs through connections and office politics, than by merit? At least the janitor earned is position through work and application process.
Bill: Exactly. That is why this conversation is so tiring. If HP overpays its CEO, sell their stock. Otherwise, why do you really care.
TCMack: Way too few. Especially the big bankers. Since they live by government guarantee, we do care. Unfortunately, the answer isnt more regulation but instead break them up and less regulation. How can a bank CEO be a visionary when some 26 year old regulator is telling them what is kosher.
Troy, the conversation is not tiring, because the question of value is the constant and necessary question of the market. The question here is not "Should we pay CEOs more than janitors?" I'll grant an affirmative answer to that relatively easy question. CEOs are already paid more for their education and talent and performance than janitors, and I think even most janitors will grant that that makes sense.
The salient question here, if we take the market at its word, is what CEOs did to add 28% more value to their work in 2010 while other workers on average added only 3% more value.
CEOs did nothing. Most of the major bank CEOs were saved by bailout money one way or another. If 28% was for anything it was their ability to scare the worker into being more productive. Where as worker productivity was at an all time high throughout the recession. Remember 88 percent of income growth went to corporate profits.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/30/258388/corporate-profits-recovery/
Why do we care? The disparity is obscene. Mark Hurd and the one before him at HP are good examples. A friend works there as a systems engineer. These guys were despised by their own employees for ill conceived policies and poor performance. Rather than a goodbye they got huge parachutes. The systemic excesses are destabilizing our economy and killing the middle class, so there are many reasons to be concerned beyond the value of our own portfolios Troy. Some people hang on to this notion the market knows best, it's pure, when in fact there are many other factors at play.
A friend of a friend? Google " Gavins point dam to be blown. He ha a friend of a friend too.
We also ought to care because absurdly high executive pay drives up the price of everything we buy significantly. A 100 or so of the top executive's pay makes a significant amount per US citizen.
In the meantime Boehner has rejected any tax increase for wealthy Americans. Obama what, is hoping these guys will one day wake up reasonable? Not gonna happen. Sad there's no place for moderate Republicans right now. Finally those like David Brooks are questioning if these Republicans are fit to lead.
There are 68,410 Office and Administrative Support jobs in this state. Entry level pay is $8.56 an hour. 34,205 of these workers make LESS than $12.28 an hour. These numbers are fairly indicitive of the 392,890 jobs in this state. Are numbers like these part of the great American dream? I tend to think not.
Personally, I can relate what has happened over the past 40 years to an occupational group that was my first job out of highschool, while I waited to get my draft notice. That was as an order picker in a warehouse. Started at $2.00 an hour in the spring of '67 and left at $2.25 in the spring of '68. Not much you might think? Well, in reality, it was not. But I didn't complain, and always seemed to have discretionary money to spend. Why? Because $2.00 an hour in '67 is $13.53 today. $2.25 in '68 is $14.61 in todays marketplace. Not a bad entry level salary in a warehouse, with little skill, and a draft notice lingering on my back like an 800 pound gorilla.
Corporate America has systematically gutted the American dream by making unions the bad guys. And without the unions as flagbearers for the rest of working America, wages have stagnated to the point of most of America being the working poor.
That is the reality regardless of what the others here might have us believe. If you still think otherwise, go to Madison and buy one gallon of gas and one gallon of milk. What's left of an hours take home pay for Joe SixPack to experience the American dream?
"Anybody really think an uneducated floor sweeper who never applied himself in school is as valuable as the visionary CEO?"
This statement is just wrong.
First, the person who made it is hopefully not inferring that every floor sweeper "never applied [them] selves in school" and are all "uneducated?"
Secondly, I hope the person who made this statement does not believe that even if the floor sweeper is "uneducated," he or she values this person any less in society. I hope the person who made this callous statement realizes how wrong it is and that he actually values an "uneducated" floor sweeper as a human being who provides the service of keeping the floors swept, so, he has a clean place to walk and he does not have to breath dust (that may or may not contain mice droppings) that could make him sick.
Finally, I hope the person who made this statement does realize the value of every job in our society. I hope he realizes the necessity of these services. Does he ponder the fact that someone, somewhere has to pick up his garbage, sweep his streets, pick his vegetables, slaughter his beef and pork, clean his public toilets, risk their lives maintaining power lines to produce his electricity, and the list goes on and on.
Yes, I hope he realizes that everyone is valuable not only as producer of a good or service, but, I hope he would look at each and every one of them with compassion in his heart, an attempt to understand what they do for him every day, and respect them as human beings.
Bob Ellis runs dakotavoice.blogspot.com where he tells you nothing matters but the Bible and uses all the talking points and phrases he picks up on Fox. He thinks everyone with more money, say the top 10%, means they work harder than everyone else. It's just that simple. Those hedge fund managers, who only seem to create wealth for themselves and no one else, work awfully hard. You tell him that no sharing is going on, the rich are getting richer and the rest are getting nothing, he is fine with it. I wonder when more and more is going to be enough. Is there a limit to the greed? He is also a very hateful anti-gay crusader. Intolerant Intolerant bigot does not do him justice. Awful guy. He also does not post all submitted comments (that he disagrees with) and spends all day arguing with anyone who does not support him or complementing those that do. When he has made sure he has the last word he ends comments. I assume he was dropped when he was a baby. Third floor from what comes out of his mouth. He is not a very nice person. Once he starts omitting posts and cuts comments off I let him have it and then he tries to block me. But there is a way around that. Hotspot Shield will let you connect to the internet (has to be wireless) with a fictitious IP. So he can block my IP all he wants I I just connect again and I have a new IP. I drive him crazy and love it. You should too!