Apr 26 2008
∞
“ Yet another factor working to widen income disparities has been the search for, and the acceptance of, ever-wider income differentials as socially acceptable or even right. In the days of our [American] Founding Fathers a hundredfold difference between one person’s income and another’s would have been regarded as a gross violation of ethical norms.
—
Economics Explained, Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow.
In the 1970’s the ratio of US CEO renumeration to that of the average worker was 40:1, by the 1990’s it was 225 to 1, I wonder what it is today? Recently a head of a US investment bank resigned after the company had to write off around US$30 billion in bad debts due to sub-prime he still walked away with $US160 million. Thousands of employees at the company, that had no involvement with the sub-prime debacle, now face retrenchment to “make up the numbers”. US CEO’s are about the most outspoken critics of a minimum wage.
