OK, so not all executives. But certainly many. I am thinking specifically about the reptilian oafs heading up the companies that tanked the American economy. GM, AIG, etc.
They drove their companies, either through incompetence or negligence or maliciousness, into the ground to such an extent that tax-payer funds were needed to bail them out. And now, when actual consequences are being threatened (if you haven't heard, their salaries are being severely restricted) people all over talk about this being a bad idea. And why do they say it is a bad idea? Because reducing the salaries "might drive the best people away from the position."
Seriously? Best people? These were the best people? These negligent, foolish, greedy sops were the best people?
No. They weren't. I don't buy that. Not for a minute. They were not the best. They were the status quo. They were not the elite through quality, they were the elite through position. Their actions have proven quite conclusively that they were not the best. More to the point, their actions have proven that they were among the worst.
If anyone else in America, from mechanics to doctors, did their job as piss-poorly as these executives have done theirs, the talk would not be of reducing their salary. Rather, the talk would be of termination and possible criminal charges. If a single doctor performed a surgery as recklessly and with as little foresight as these executives have prosecuted their responsibilities, that doctor (after the patient died a horrible, unnecessary death) would be subjected to board review, lose his/her license, be forbidden to ever practice medicine again, and would then have to stand trial for malpractice, if not for manslaughter.
That these executives even still have their jobs is more than generous. That they, even after losing their ridiculous bonuses, are still paid far more than the average American is insulting.
These men and women do not deserve to even be mentioned in the same sentence as the word "best." They are the worst, and we do not need them. We should set them aside, letting them drift away on their golden parachutes, while new blood with good ideas takes their spots. I know dozens of bright, motivated, savvy college grads who would do the job for a fraction of the cost. We do not need to overpay executives. Even if an exec here or there is worth the millions they are paid, that money is wasted on any single individual, and would be better spent on growing the company. In the cases of miserable failures like GM and AIG, those executives are not worth any kind of compensation, period.
