It's all over the news, job losses in January topped 600,000, the worst job losses since 1945. My question is this: for every non-executive level worker laid off at Caterpillar, Home Depot, or Sprint, how many board of director positions or salaries or meeting budgets were adjusted?
President Obama has made a laudable start in addressing the egregious difference between executive and average worker pay by asking banks who will be receiving significant bail out funds to cap executive salaries. Maybe it's time to start addressing the corporate bloat in all American businesses, where executives often make 400 times the average worker's pay in benefits, stock options and bonuses.
Should we reward hard work and innovation, yes. But can we continue the privilege party for the few (a group that seems to have grown exponentially during the Bush years) at the cost of the many? I don't think we can.
If you're a stock holder, it's time to exercise the power owning those shares still gives you (as their economic reward is so sorely diminished) --read the proxy materials and start voting your shares for change in the way America does business.
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