Taking a Pay Cut

There is a lot of buzz of late about what the so-called "Pay Czar" Kenneth Fienberg will do in relation to Wall Street fat cat pay and bonuses.

Now we all remember the phony outrage over the AIG bonuses paid out at the beginning of 2009. I say phony because Congress knew when the bonuses were going to be paid and how much those bonuses were going to be yet none of them objected. In other words, they approved of the bonuses.

Now fast forward to this week. You have an un-Constitutional policy maker in the form of a czar that will determine what 25 top executives in each of the 7 largest government bailed out firms will earn.

You may be saying "good its about time" because you may think they earn too much. Well yes, earning $100 million in total compensation from a company that nearly went out of business does seem to be a bit excessive. OK so its very excessive. However, that does not give the government the right or the power to limit pay.

Now understand something. Competition is still in high gear here in the USA and abroad. Garnering the top executive talent is more important than ever before. Now I ask you, who is going to take over the helm of a troubled company, try and turn it around by working monster hours, not to mention having government regulator breath down your neck daily causing you numerous headaches for a measly $200k per year?

Before you say you would, you better think again. Lets just say you are a top executive and you are in demand. Would you go to work for a company that is not heavily regulated by the government and can pay you $500 or would you work for a company that is still in financial trouble, heavily regulated by the government and can only pay you $200k? Well unless you are a total moron, you would go for the easier half million payday.

We are talking about private sector jobs hear people. Now how about all those public employees? You know the people who get paid by our tax dollars. Yes, those idiots who sit in Washington, D.C. and draw a paycheck from We the People.

Now understand those czars really don't do a darn thing to add to the bottom line of this nation or its citizens or the private companies. Yet these people pull down hefty incomes. At last count I found there were some 36 czars in the employ of the Federal Government each pulling down a salary between $150 thousand to $175 thousand dollars per year.

That is very close to what those senior executives that add to the bottom line of our nations gross domestic product will be able to earn under Obama.

Also notice how these executives will no longer be RICH. Yes that is right, they will no longer be wealthy. Remember during the campaign Obama pegged rich as anyone earning $250k per year or more.

These executives have just been demoted to not rich. And if it can happen to them, it can happen to you. Unless of course, you go to work for the government. Then you could earn a comfy salary, do hardly anything, make waves by saying you are doing something and in the end, end up rich. But don't worry, if you look at those who occupy the halls of power, you won't have to pay much if any taxes on your new found wealth.