Originally Posted by kane

Sadly this is true. Many CEO's now negotiate their pay contracts with less direct pay and more stock options and bonus structures. There are some CEOs who might earn a couple hundred thousand a year in base pay but the stock options and bonuses end up being in the millions. Some of the bonuses are simply based on how long you are at the job. Say, for example, at the two year mark a CEO might get a five million dollar bonus then another ten million when they hit the five year mark. So it doesn't matter how the company does, they get the bonus just for showing up to work.

In the long run the little guy is the one that always gets fucked. He is told now he has to fork over his tax dollars to bailout a bunch of rich people because if he doesn't they will collapsed and he will lose his job. If he decided to buy a house or two and try to flip them and make some extra income and ended up getting caught with the declining market and having them foreclosed on he is irresponsible and he is the root of the problem. But if a company bought 300 houses and lost a bunch of them and declare bankruptcy that is somehow just business.

Somehow there are people who thing the union auto workers are solely to blame for the car industry collapse even though Ford just announced that they renegotiated with the union and even before the renegotiation the cost of labor was only about 10% of the cost of making the car. So that 10% is somehow response for the entire downfall of the company.

It is a strange world for sure.