There is a debate going on. People are arguing whether CEO's pay should be legally limited. What? Excuse me? Are you seriously on crack?
Why there is even a debate around this issue I do not understand. Equal wages for every profession is a concept which appeared during communism. The sheer idiocy of it clearly demonstrates why communism doesn't work. The world might be a small place and we might be more alike than we think, but we are also very different. We are born with different skill-sets, interests, dreams, aspirations, physical, analytical abilities, etc..
Some of those abilities are harder to find than others. Since running a country is a bit more complex than making my Big Mac, I don't want both of the people occupying those positions to be paid the same. Attracting qualified people requires sufficient incentive and there is no incentive better than pay.
Passing legislation to limit CEO salaries has to be one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard. It's right up there with buying parts of land on the Moon. If a salary in unattractive to a qualified candidate, nothing stops him from finding another company to run, perhaps in another country, devoid of such a legislation. This will in turn result in a massive exodus of the best and brightest of the rarest professionals. The country will be facing a severe shortage of qualified labor, thousands if not millions of jobs will be lost. Those middle class people who were bitching about a CEO's salary are now in the street begging to have the tenth of what they had before they complained everything away.
If 80% of the 1,412 employees surveyed for the MetLife report rank salary and wages as "extremely important" to their loyalty to the company, why would it be any less important for a CEO? They provide a much rarer service with significant pressure and responsibility. Can we all handle it? Possibly, but becoming a CEO in a multi billion dollar corporation, or PM or President of a country does not happen from one day to another. It requires 20-30 years of experience in the field, a proven track record that yielded positive results and a whole bunch of other bullshit none of us will ever bother to learn.
I realize you might disagree with me and will tell me we are all equal. That's true, in a way. We are all equally human but it does not mean we are equally qualified. So if you're not happy about your situation, take a look at what valuable skills you can acquire or products you can sell, for people to pay you millions of dollars. Make it so that you provide such a valuable service that those people are not only happy to pay you millions every year, but ask you to come back again and again and you'll make it.
Too hard? Well that's what those people did. That's why they get paid what they get paid. If you are one of the people complaining, why don't you do something about your situation instead of complaining about theirs?
