Don't get me wrong. I don't want the government telling me or anyone else what I can or can't pay my employees and I am not advocating for the government to do so. The reason that the income disparity has gotten so far out of whack is the demonization of labor unions. Now, a lot of these unions didn't do themselves any favors in shaping the opinion that they are all bad, but we are quickly reaching a point where unions may become a useful and necessary part of the economy again. I agree about the minimum wage. In my opinion the minimum wage should be tied to inflation rather than raised randomly by politicians. This would keep the minimum wage moving upward but not without consideration for the overall health of the economy. Perhaps other metrics would be better but I used inflation as an example. I also think the minimum wage should be different if you live in NYC than if you live in Hornbeck, La. You are dead on with education being a problem. We've systematically cut education funding for decades so I don't know how we expect our results to get any better, regardless of what the program is called.....ie No Child Left Behind, Common Core, etc. Further, last year the federal government profited 66 billion off of student loan debt payments. I have a problem with that. Let's make these loans as near to 0 interest as we can and quit gouging kids who only want to get a freaking education. Agree that there are some good paying jobs available now but without the technically skilled people to fill them....it's all over the news in NC where a lot of furniture manufacturing is making a come back.
my bad, I misspoke there and thanks for the correction. CEO's definitely have carte blanche. In my industry, furniture, the CEO of Lane was fired about five years ago after running the company in the ground, paying himself crazy amounts of money and secretly having corporate properties on the coast signed over to him personally. They've tried to recover but their debts are making it prohibitive and a long standing, standard bearer furniture company will eventually fold because of it.
But you wouldn't compare LeBron's salary to mine or yours because we are not professional basketball players so his salary would have to be compared to other NBA players and in that regard his salary is still only about 4-5 times more than the average NBA player. LeBron's salary is roughly 21.5 million and the average NBA salary is 5.5 million. To your point about the CEO, even if he/she is the very best deal maker in the world, they are useless without employees to carry out their plans. Further, very rarely do CEO's make those kind of decisions alone, but rather in concert with other officers in the company and their respective advisors. I'm not saying they shouldn't be paid more, just not that much more.
Do you know what the definition of socialism is? This is a private company making a private decision that has absolutely nothing to do with systems of government. It has nothing to do with socialism. It has everything to do with a CEO recognizing the disparity in executive pay and standing up for what he believes in. It's his money and his company and he can do whatever he wants with it. I have a furniture and mattress company and there is no way in the world I would ever do what he is doing but this is America and the man can do as he pleases. No one is implying that we are all equal....you are living, breathing proof that weaker, less intelligent people exist. But if an employer wants to pay all of his employees the same he or she can do that and, yes, still be considered a capitalist.
True, not in a "governmental" type of way in no one is forcing him to do this. Why don't you go on and define it for me, lets see how many similarities we can draw.
But CEO pay really isn't out of control. Most of the Fortune 500's are very reasonable with many people in the organization making in the 6 figure range. Take P66 for example. Local plant engineers etc make very good money and even the work hands, who are Union, make tons. A guy I know worked at a plant here for 30 years and has millions in P66 stock given to him by the company. Yes, there are select companies that go overboard, but good companies, most companies, do not do this. The company I work for, fortune 500 as well, the CEO gets paid just over $300K. All employees get profit sharing as a % of your salary.
You have no idea what his employees make or what they do. The owner does. Maybe he was worried about losing an experienced workforce through turnover because they could get better pay elsewhere. Seattle has a huge cost of living compared to us. Maybe he just thought they deserved more of the huge pie he was getting. maybe he is doing it for PR. If so it worked like a charm and may pay off for him. His company--his right to do things his way. Once again, you have no clue what socialism is. You really should look it up. Socialism is collective ownership by the state. This is capitalism pure and simple and the capitalist in question is freely choosing to pay his workers fairly. You are free to start your own company and run it the way you wish. So is he. He apparently knows something about his business. Slackers get fired. Productive workers get raises. These employees got raises and are likely very productive. Some learn more than others everywhere, including this man's company. He just decided to raise the floor because it was the right thing to do. It ain't like $70K is an outrageous amount of money.
Speaking of McDonalds, I had to read their 10k for class and they are now going to be testing self ordering kiosks. labor costs for McDonalds is $0.35 on the dollar. We had a McDonald owner cost our class and he said the profit margin on the dollar is pennies. Volume based business. Over seas labor is $0.05 on the dollar.
so·cial·ism ˈsōSHəˌlizəm/ noun a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. synonyms: leftism, welfarism; More policy or practice based on the political and economic theory of socialism. synonyms: leftism, welfarism; More (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism After the hair-splitting over my definition of ignorance on another thread I will defer to the actual definition. In that same vane, I'll pass along a little more consideration than I was afforded and tell you that I get what you are trying to say when you say this seems socialistic. One thing the article failed to mention was that the CEO didn't offer those employees an equity share, he simply raised their salaries to match his own. I have no doubt at the end of the year that the dude cleans off the table to the tune of a half million or so. I doubt seriously he went from living on a million a year to living on seventy grand.
