On golden parachutes and CEO salaries...

There has been a lot of furor in the press lately about the Detroit Three CEOs taking their private jets down to Washington to ask for a handout from the government. I'm not going to discuss the financial hole that they've been digging for thirty years, but I do have to comment on the grassroots complaining about salaries.

I am very lucky to have the job that I have. People work a lot harder than I do for a lot less money. I have a skill and knowledge that other people don't, which makes me well-suited for the work that I do, but that isn't always a requirement at my place of work... it tends to be an exception.

Now, I am not the boss. I am FAR from being the Big Boss. The people who occupy such posts, as the leaders of companies that operate in the billions of dollars, got to where they are for a reason. They excelled in lower administrative positions after years of business school or law school, they proved their mettle as heads of divisions, vice-presidents, and so on. They are gluttons for punishment... those who head companies which employ unionized workers literally cannot make a decision without criticism.

The company that employs such people needs to do whatever it can to keep them, or they will leave. They know exactly how much demand there is for people of their calibre. This is, literally, why they get paid the big bucks. You could pay someone less, but they wouldn't be as good. Of course they want a contract upon their hiring guaranteeing them a big lump of cash upon their dismissal - they know they can get it! They should have a jet to fly around in. They're the face of a gigantic corporation. The fact that these particular guys run corporations which have been dying a slow death for three decades notwithstanding.

This is the same reasoning I apply when members of parliament vote themselves a raise. THIS NEEDS TO BE A HIGH-PAYING JOB. If it wasn't, well-qualified, well-educated people wouldn't want to run for office! There needs to be competition among the best our country has to offer for these positions. They aren't going to take a pay cut unless they are way more noble than the average human, and I don't trust someone who is that noble.

A great example of this is Political Science students. You rarely see someone with a degree in Political Science actually running for office. They're too smart for that. What does that say?