So what is the difference between a top executive and a top sports star? In both cases the customers are the ones who pay, never mind the “shareholders”.

The “little guy/gal” always pays. It is the first law of economics.

Another way to look at it is that there is the guy in the castle, the people outside the castle but inside the walls on top of the cliff, and then there is the rabble in the valley growing the food to feed everyone, with the best food going to those inside the walls.

Nothing has changed.

Well top sports stars are doing something that other people cannot. That is why they are the “top” of the “sports stars”.

When I saw where the CEO of Scotia bank had in income of 10 million per year. I closed all my accounts and went to the Credit Union for my banking.

It was a difficult decision after banking with Scotia for over 30 years. But I said screw you and left.
cheers

“Well top sports stars are doing something that other people cannot”

As are top executives, despite what most folks seem to think.

The real question I think is whether the top executives are worthy of the money they make and whether the culture they are involved with is something we choose to support.

I suppose one could say it’s none of anyone’s business other than the corporation paying them and I would actually agree 100% with that, except for the fact that corporations do not operate in a bubble. They are increasingly having significant influence when it comes to public policy, environmental issues, our political and financial systems, the job markets within entire countries, the manner in which public resources are utilized, etc.

In short, I think you could make an argument that in many ways large corporations are behaving more and more like governments, except for the rather obvious fact that unlike governments, they do not represent the public at large nor or they accountable to them.

When organizations start to have this level of influence on the public domain, then I think it is also reasonable for the public domain to have influence on them. How’s that for being fair? Of course, I suppose that’s why we are supposed to have governments, so that they can look out for the common good of society. Naive I know, LOL.

I admire what you did Retired 02! That’s what we need to do. I read that the CEO of Scotibank made $13 million last year, although I realize that it is not just straight cash to him/her and that it includes stock options, but still…absolutely ridiculous. Why the heck does a person need that kind of money, yearly? Just because they can get it doesn’t make it right.

The big banks (and credit unions) are all about community building, and I will admit that they certainly do their share, but I would like to see the top executives donate a portion of their ridiculous salaries to a charity or to their hometowns or something.

So how many lives do the top 0.5% of medical doctors save per year, you know, the ones who have the greatest success with helping their tough to diagnose and heal patients. (read goals for hockey players, etc. and company profits for CEOs)

Now, take them guys and gals with that more uncommon healing touch, and figure out why they don’t get a million bucks for every life they save over the run of the mill doctor ….. you know, like the run of the mill sports pro who ends up as pro at the local golf club, hockey fclub, etc. and the run of the mill department manager.

In my opinion, the system is totally screwed up and few people get it, so it will continue to be screwed up.

Luckily we have people who like money, but realize that as long as they have reasonable financial security there are more important things in life than a private jet, 25,000 sf villa overlooking Monaco Harbour, etc. They get a kick from a different kind of contribution to society.

The system is corrupt because of things like your RRSP mutual funds more than anything else. Some hidden guy running the mutual fund gets the voting rights to your capital and nobody blinks so long as the returns on paper look good… returns on paper that are increasingly fictitious and built on tearing down companies and using hidden debt leverage… but the paper returns are good, so the stock price goes up, and with the rising stock price comes the commissions of those fixing the paper returns.

Then in BC we have the BCSC which has never once successfully investigated and prosecuted a single violator of security laws in BC… the most fraudulent securities market in North America. They are essentially in place to act as an appearance of a regulated market to help investors feel they are dealing with a market that follows the rule of law. BC is home to gangsterism monopoly capitalism HQ.

IMO the system collapses this year.

I think smart money gets out of bonds and stocks completely unless a company is paying good dividends and has elastic cash flow. Inflation and the crushing margin calls will destroy huge swaths of capital formation and when it comes the little guy will be the one standing in the cold realizing the regulators will do nothing to protect their rights. Getting through the coming storm is not going to be easy… maybe the only way left to protect the economy of main street is a bank holiday or a payroll tax holiday… but by the time our bankster owned politicians realize this it will likely long past midnight.

Eagleone:-“Then in BC we have the BCSC which has never once successfully investigated and prosecuted a single violator of security laws in BC..”
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Herb Doman, Doman Industries Ltd. That’s one.

Eagleone:-“The system is corrupt because of things like your RRSP mutual funds more than anything else.”
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It is, but the main problem isn’t what most people think it is. Every dollar you put into your RRSP is a dollar that originated as debt to the banking system.

It was borrowed by some business, and as it was paid out and became someone’s ‘income’, it was ‘costed’ into the price of that business’s products.

To liquidate those costs through prices requires the spending of at least an equal amount of incomes to them.

But when part of those incomes are diverted to RRSPs, and subsequently invested, they are not so spent.

They are then creating ANOTHER set of ‘costs’. While leaving the first set unliquidated, and unliquidatable, UNLESS SOME MORE DOLLARS ENTER THE SYSTEM. They do. Usually. But always as MORE bank debt.

And that ain’t even the half of it, of what’s really wrong, I mean.

Eagle, thats out right BS that the bcsc hasn’t prosecuted violaters of securities law. What a bizaar statement.

Socredible, a few economics courses can be a dangerous thing. You know what they say about economists…there the only profession called experts and they have never been right. Ive taken more than my share and I glaze over trying to follow your logic.

dow7500, there are ‘Economists’ and there are ‘Accountants’. The first are like the weatherman. They try to predict what MIGHT happen overall somewhere based on various types of information they have available. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re not. For a so-called ‘science’, there seems to generally be a lot more disagreement amongst them than there would be amongst Meteorologists in arriving at their predictions.

Generally they’re concerned with what might happen in the whole economy based on past experiences and not so much with the individual businesses that make it up, considered as individual businesses.

That latter is the purview of the Accountants. Who record what HAS happened in any particular individual business, and then try to project what might happen in that same business in the future based largely on those results.

The two disciplines should tend to complement each other, but unfortunately they currently do not. They don’t even “speak the same language”, would be one way of putting it.

While modern cost accountancy is very effective in determining the financial health of any particular business, and/or is often also able to point the way towards a more financially healthy future for it, there is currently really no way to accurately tie what HAS happened in EVERY individual business together as a whole, in the Accountants’ “language”.

Which is the “language” in the final analysis that will determine whether or not there will continue to be an adequate supply of Bank credit, (‘money’), AS A WHOLE, that’s capable of continually allowing ‘Production’ to become ‘Consumption’ in the WHOLE economy. And thus effect EVERY business in it, and ALL of us as Consumers, or would be Consumers, of their products.

Because of this failure we are often repeatedly treated to the paradox of “poverty in the midst of plenty.” Where we are increasingly ever more capable of supplying everyone with our ‘every need and comfort’ physically, but are also increasingly less and less able to do so financially.

That’s what needs to be corrected. We can’t do it as the ‘socialists’ would have us do it ~ that doesn’t even touch the crux of the problem. There needs to be a way of relating the rules and conventions of Accounting to ‘money’ as a whole.

To put it simply, the problem is not really a ‘production’ problem that can ever be solved by our becoming ‘more’ productive ~ even though in terms of efficiency that’s always desirable ~ but rather a ‘distribution’ problem. The agency of distribution is ‘money’ in the hands of the public in a quantity always sufficiently capable of moving what’s been, or is capable of being, produced into final consumption.

Socredible the problem you talk about stems mostly from globalization. We allow the system to be corrupted to float fictitious hypothetical economics that destroys any semblance of accounting on a global scale and ultimately builds a ponzi scheme floated by slave labor, environmental arbitrage, and increasing fiat debt.

Great article I found today… by probably the most trusted guy on the economy IMO.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/01/06/the-dismal-economic-outlook-for-the-new-year/

Look it up dow7500. The BCSC is there simply to create the appearance that securities fraud is investigate here in BC. Their track record is available for all to see. BC has the most unregulated and wild west securities market in North America.. any thing goes and fraud is almost always covered up by the BCSC and the BC Supreme Court.