ceo payouts are an outrage?

[Laize]

When it's money given to them by taxpayers, people have every right to be outraged.

Wait... what? Who said anything about taxpayers?

[Felya]

0... Split the pay between employees and have them vote on the course of the company. You end up with choices dictated by those who resemble the consumer as well those who have a lot riding on having the job. Not only are you contributing to more available spending by the consumer, but they will never vote to ship jobs out of town.

[semaphore]

Wait... what? Who said anything about taxpayers?

When did CEO payouts become a major issue?

[Deleted]

Jeez... that's a misunderstanding of what they do... to say the absolute least.

CEOs determine corporate direction and strategy. They identify untapped markets and how to access them, the best ways to take market share from competitors and the best way to expand revenues. It's easiest to imagine a corporation like a military (That is, in effect, what it is... of a sort). If each individual worker is a soldier, their supervisor would be the Seargeant. Their job is to do their group's task as the orders come down from above.

A VP would then delegate orders to all the sergeants depending on what needed to be done.

A CEO is the general. He determines the huge, overarching corporate strategy. He identifies competitor weak points (as well as his company's own) and exploits (or fortifies) them. It really can't be put any simpler than that. His job is macro-strategy. Big picture stuff. And because he's the "general" and a corporation (and its competitors) never sleeps, he's on call 24/7 even on vacation.

So the general should be payed in millions?
If so why aren't actual military generals payed in millions?
Even the US president doesn't get paid in millions.
Is being a CEO that hard?

[Nophixia]

what exactly do CEOs do? make deals? file papers? organize people? those are honestly not "difficult" or "straining" duties.

Why do they get paid so much then if it's not a difficult job? Why are there more for example electricians then CEO's if being a CEO is much easier then a "field" job??

I think you don't have a clue what a CEO has to do on a daily basis and what he/she has to think about and let alone all the responsibility.

[Kraenen]

Jeez... that's a misunderstanding of what they do... to say the absolute least.

CEOs determine corporate direction and strategy. They identify untapped markets and how to access them, the best ways to take market share from competitors and the best way to expand revenues. It's easiest to imagine a corporation like a military (That is, in effect, what it is... of a sort). If each individual worker is a soldier, their supervisor would be the Seargeant. Their job is to do their group's task as the orders come down from above.

A VP would then delegate orders to all the sergeants depending on what needed to be done.

A CEO is the general. He determines the huge, overarching corporate strategy. He identifies competitor weak points (as well as his company's own) and exploits (or fortifies) them. It really can't be put any simpler than that. His job is macro-strategy. Big picture stuff. And because he's the "general" and a corporation (and its competitors) never sleeps, he's on call 24/7 even on vacation.

No human is this powerful. You make men into gods when you give them this much power. No wonder so many of them fail. No wonder their behaviours turn out evil: their power structure is an oligarchy within a dictatorship.

[Laize]

0... Split the pay between employees and have them vote on the course of the company. You end up with choices dictated by those who resemble the consumer as well those who have a lot riding on having the job. Not only are you contributing to more available spending by the consumer, but they will never vote to ship jobs out of town.

Excepting the fact that if you crowdsource the operation of an entire company, you'll never get anything done... what do you think the odds are that the majority of people working for that company know how to operate ANY business much less that specific one? A dozen? Maybe 2 if it's a huge company like GE?

[lorien1973]

Originally Posted by semaphore
When it's money given to them by taxpayers, people have every right to be outraged.

then your problem is with the people giving them the tax dollars, no?

[Harry Botter]

You should get to the things that you're worrying about instead of telling us how much you have to worry about then.



What an inexperienced and unknowledgeable view of what a CEO does.

It's 11pm and im about to go to bed. So I feel entitled to say exactly how I feel without a random douche bag telling me how to do it. Wife just had a miscarriage with our twins so im a bit on edge and trying to unwind while she sleeps.

Infracted: Please do not insult other users

[Laize]

No human is this powerful. You make men into gods when you give them this much power. No wonder so many of them fail. No wonder their behaviours turn out evil: their power structure is an oligarchy within a dictatorship.

You say they turn out evil, but the number of "evil" companies you can name isn't even half of one percent of all the companies on the NYSE much less in existence.

For every Bank of America there's a Johnson & Johnson. No one likes to remember the good guy companies, though. Too inconvenient for their anti-corporate screeds.

[Spectral]

No human is this powerful. You make men into gods when you give them this much power. No wonder so many of them fail. No wonder their behaviours turn out evil: their power structure is an oligarchy within a dictatorship.

I've seen some blowhardy bullshit, but this might take the cake.

[Stir]

Jeez... that's a misunderstanding of what they do... to say the absolute least.

CEOs determine corporate direction and strategy. They identify untapped markets and how to access them, the best ways to take market share from competitors and the best way to expand revenues. It's easiest to imagine a corporation like a military (That is, in effect, what it is... of a sort). If each individual worker is a soldier, their supervisor would be the Seargeant. Their job is to do their group's task as the orders come down from above.

A VP would then delegate orders to all the sergeants depending on what needed to be done.

A CEO is the general. He determines the huge, overarching corporate strategy. He identifies competitor weak points (as well as his company's own) and exploits (or fortifies) them. It really can't be put any simpler than that. His job is macro-strategy. Big picture stuff. And because he's the "general" and a corporation (and its competitors) never sleeps, he's on call 24/7 even on vacation.

Actually... No. A CEO's job is to delegate all that work to a team of experts, who will write papers that need to be read by the CEO, understood by the CEO, and judged by the CEO. And then signed by the CEO.
Edit: I'll admit that it's still a lot of work, and you need to be constantly at least somewhat knowledgeable of the things going on, but it's nowhere near the amount of work you make it out to be. The main issue with being a CEO is that you're ultimately responsible.

[Felya]

Excepting the fact that if you crowdsource the operation of an entire company, you'll never get anything done... what do you think the odds are that the majority of people working for that company know how to operate ANY business much less that specific one? A dozen? Maybe 2 if it's a huge company like GE?

If you can't get things done, you can hire more workers to cover. After all, with CEO pay cut, you can hire quite a few workers to cover any sort of meeting. I also simply believe that most people would be able to make a choice that would keep them working. CEO's are not some mystical beings that are simply out of scope for normal people.

[bekilrwale]

If all we know is that the CEO is doing "a good job" I don't see how we can possibly answer this accurately. If we are just going off of emotions and the only one I really know is the CEO I would give him 80 and the other two 10.

[Laize]

So the general should be payed in millions?
If so why aren't actual military generals payed in millions?
Even the US president doesn't get paid in millions.
Is being a CEO that hard?

A military general is, at his core, a civil servant. His pay is dictated (indirectly) by the taxpayers.

A CEO is a businessman. His pay is dictated by negotiation with the board of directors. As to why a company would pay a CEO millions? The most likely reason is that $5 million is a laughably small sum of money. Consider a company that earns $5 billion in operating income. $5 million is .1% of the company's operating income.

To a board member, that sum of money is about the same as 50 cents is to you.

[Spectral]

Actually... No. A CEO's job is to delegate all that work to a team of experts, who will write papers that need to be read by the CEO, understood by the CEO, and judged by the CEO. And then signed by the CEO.

This really depends on the size of the company.

[Laize]

If you can't get things done, you can hire more workers to cover. After all, with CEO pay cut, you can hire quite a few workers to cover any sort of meeting. I also simply believe that most people would be able to make a choice that would keep them working. CEO's are not some mystical beings that are simply out of scope for normal people.

No, they're not.

They are well educated and generally VERY experienced at running a business, however.

Tell you what, you make a company and run it exactly the way you suggested. Tell me how that works out.

[semaphore]

then your problem is with the people giving them the tax dollars, no?

It also goes beyond that because there's more stakeholder in a business than just the shareholders. If someone you work with gets paid 8,000 times more than you for doing a truly shitty job, do you think that you would be wrong to complain? Major corporations have significant impact on the economy they operate in, if a CEO who's paid 10,000 times more than you ran their company into the ground taking the economy with them while landing with a golden parachute, do you really think it's wrong to complain about it?

I didn't bring those up since given that I was responding to Laize, I knew it would be a massive waste of time.

[Felya]

Be careful where you draw the line between the majesty of CEO's and the ability to start a small business of a common folk.

[Magpai]

I'm curious to know what any business any of you think you have telling a company that they can only pay anyone a certain amount and not more. How fucking arrogant and self-centered do you have to be to think you deserve input in such a matter? The CEO of a salary is between the CEO and the company.