Ain't That A Shame!

(Cue Fats Domino.)

Pity the poor, poor CEOs who have to try to scrape by on a paltry $7.6 million a year. With the price of Hamburger Helper being what it is, they could be in for a rough ride.

One of the few things the current administration is doing right: "pressure has grown from shareholders, Congress and President Barack Obama for boards of directors to rein in executive pay". Of course, this raises a rather appropriate question: whatever happened to that idea -- first floated back in the '80s? -- that shareholders should have a vote in the matter of executive compensation? The incestuous relationship between executives and boards of directors is part of what brought on this current disaster.

We've said it before and it bears repeating -- the number one economic problem in this country is greed. It also serves to confirm our long-standing belief that great wealth distorts one's perspective.

It's somewhat reminiscent of a joke The Old Sarge read years ago about a teacher in an upper-crust neighborhood who decided to help her students learn about poverty by having them write a short story on the subject. One student's essay began "There once was a family that was very, very poor. The mother was poor. The father was poor. The children were poor. Even the servants were poor."

.