Two articles in the July 2, 2023 edition of The New York Times titled “ Pay Day Just Keeps Getting Sweeter, If You're the Boss" and " Does It Help to Know What CEOs Earn ?” are pertinent to today's economic inequality. Thomas Jefferson's "all men are created equal..... came to mind .. “ Instead of the philosophical inquiry regarding equality, this disquisition illustrates deviations from the norm of intellectual, emotional, creative and physical differences, uniqueness and excellence between Homo sapiens.
Individuals can be described as unequal, unalike ,differentiable, partisan, different, unique with many standard deviations from the norm .Just a few examples : Moses, Jesus, Samson, Socrates , Aristotle, Plato, Epicurus , Machavelli, Buddha, Confucius , Allah , Alexander , Spinoza, Rousseau, Napoleon , Marx , Goethe, Mendelson , Chopin , Heidegger, Sarte , da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Russell, Currie, Pasteur, Camus, Doevetsky , Chagall, Picasso, Pollock , Jefferson, Lincoln, Whitman, Dickenson, Frost, Sandberg , Einstein , Oppenheimer, Teller, Roosevelts Sabin , King Jr. Chomsky, Skinner , Gandhi , Luther, Freud, Fromm, Jung, Chaplin, Ali , Gompers, J.Robinson , J. Brown ,B. Jackson , Tiger , Venus, Serena , Phelps, Spitz ,R. Charles, Michael J. , Jordan, Magic, Bird etc. I admit that , in my biases, I omitted many exceptional, unique ,creative,and intelligent individuals.
Countries are also unequal. For instance, "List of countries-adjusted human development index based on 2021 estimates.” According to this ranking , the US was tied with Cyprus at number 25 on their list of 156 countries. Norway , Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Australia, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany were ranked better than ours.
According to the first article, the earnings among CEO’s and the median earnings of their employees is increasing. The research firm Equilar reported that the top earner in 2022 was the CEO from Google . He was awarded $225,985,000 while the median income Google employee earned $270,862 . And, it would take that median employee 808 years to accumulate that pay difference . In 2021, that Google CEO earned $6,333,680. And ,he accomplished what ? In 2021, the top CEO at Trade Desk earned $835 million. In 2020,the CEO at Palantic earned $51.1 billion.That can’t be accurate.
Peter F. Drucker was quoted and said that most workers understood that CEO’s would be paid more and about 10 to 12 times more would be appropriate. Drucker went on to say that CEO’s should impose a voluntary limit on their pay keeping it no higher than 20 times that of what rank-and-file members make. The economist went on to say that to do otherwise would create corrosive levels of income inequality as a warning not only to companies but to all society as well. I do not know about Dr. Drucker's wisdom related to the pay of CEOs, however, it's obvious that not all CEOs are taking his advice. But, I do agree that CEO pay is corrosive, toxic, and illustrates economic madness.
The second article stated that in 1933 the federal government asked 2000 corporations listed on the stock exchange to disclose how much their top bosses were earning. It was an idea and based on the erroneous belief that it would encourage a more conservative management industry. CEO compensation has risen. In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission required companies to publish executive pay and its ratio to median worker pay. In 2022, the median pay for CEOs ,who were on the job for at least two years, was 14.8 million . This number was 186 times greater than median employee pay according to Equilar.
One study looked at a companies' performance related to the pay ratio between the median worker and the leader. There are two theories regarding worker performance. The first is called the Tournament theory . It suggests when pay is fair, workers will be motivated to put in more effort . Because with more disparity , there is a bigger prize for climbing the corporate ladder. The second theory is called Equity. This suggests that when pay gaps are perceived as unfair, it builds resentment and leads to poor performance. The researchers hypothesized that firms with lower ratios would perform better. Instead, they found no significant differences . Some believe that median worker pay may be more important , if fair, than knowing what the top boss makes.
Another study found that the average real earnings of the top 0.1% grew by 298 % between 1984 -2014 compared to 21% for the bottom half.
Jefferson’s “ equal reference “ might have been related to the male WASP’s. Jefferson didn't have a psychological understanding of Homo sapiens. A few illustrations of differences follow. In S.R. In Maddi's comparative analysis of personality theories, he called one group of theories, the Conflict model as represented by Freud, Murray, Jung, Sullivan, Rank and others. A second classification for Maddi was the Fulfillment model represented by Rogers ,Maslow, Adler, Fromm and others. The third was called the Consistency model and was represented by McClelland ,Kelly, Maddi and others. Last week I described the Authoritarian conscience and its differences . There are a number of mental illness diagnoses as well.
Albert Maslow, years ago, studied individuals who were considered unique and productive like Thomas Jefferson, Elenor Roosevelt and others .Maslow acknowledged that the people, in his study , were not perfect. They had ordinary human failings, and on occasion they were ruthlessly alienated from others and detached. He concluded that there was a motivation to achieve self actualization and he listed 15 characteristics of an actualized person. In his 15 characteristics these individuals did not have tendencies for\ seeking power , possession nor status .Their characteristics included possessing a more efficient perception of reality and being comfortable with it ; accepting self and others; spontaneity, problem-solving , detachment; need for privacy; autonomy , freshness of perception ; mystic experience , oceanic feeling; identification, sympathy and affection for mankind ; Interpersonal relations; democratic character structure; discrimination between means and ends; creativeness; sense of humor ; and resistance to enculturation.
In "It Has Nothing to Do with Age ," I described athletes that participated in extreme sports. The findings pertained to just them and I did not and would not generalize their motivation , drive and excellence as being representative of individuals in our country nor did I with the athletes that I interviewed in "Bo’s Warriors Bo Schembechler and the Transformation of Michigan Football. “
The research regarding the CEOs and their employees did not have a universal sample . With their select sample, the results only apply to those few in the study. We can't generalize since it's not a universal sample. For example, Musk, Bezos, Gates, Buffett and Zuckerberg were not included in their study. We know what CEOs earn and their employees. Are those numbers regarding wages fair, equitable, just, impartial, honest, nondiscriminatory, unprejudiced ,objective, aboveboard ,legitimate ,good, on the level ,kosher or proper ?
The answer is " no." CEO compensation is a symptom of the disastrous and toxic effects of capitalism. Income inequality has been increasing as long as I can remember and is an example of discrimination and exploitation by those in control . The zealous pursuit of power, possession, prestige are neurotic symptoms. Currently our world ranking of inequality is loud and clear. No wonder there's so much division in this country. It's not surprising why so many have an authoritarian conscience and the state Republican power structure is adding to the discrimination by attacking voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights etc.
In summation, our country began with differences between the economic and political Wasp elite and the rest. Our current economic and political policies exacerbate the same inequality irrespective of Jefferson’s words. Is possessing a virtue and does it result in happiness or is it simply selfishness ?
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