CEO vs SLAVES

CEOs vs. Slaves …By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet … Posted on May 31, 2007, Printed on June 1, 2007 … http://www.alternet.org/story/52645/ … EXERPTED
According to a just-reported study by Carola Frydman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Raven E. Saks at the Federal Reserve, 30-40 years ago, the CEO's of major companies earned 80 percent more, on average, than the third-highest-paid executives. By the early part of the 21st century, however, the gap CEO and the third in command had ballooned up to 260 percent.
Now take a look at what's happening at the very bottom of the economic spectrum, where you might have pictured low-wage workers trudging between food banks or mendicants dwelling in cardboard boxes. It turns out, though, that the bottom is a lot lower than that.

Why is it so hard for the people at the top to graciously acknowledge their dependency on the labor of others? We need some sort of gravitational force to counter the explosive distancing brought about by greed -- before our economy imitates the universe and blows itself to smithereens…. Barbara Ehrenreich …!

You really believe any CEO or corporate executive is actually worth 260% more income than is earned by the average wage earner in the USA…?

I sure as hell don’t. But then I don’t believe because you’re tall and can dunk a basketball you’re worth $20 million a year, while “we” – that’s you and me – are content to pay those who teach our children barely above minimum wages. Nor do I believe because you can throw a baseball 90 miles an hour or “bulk” up to hit 70 home runs in a season you’re worth $30 million a year, when we choose to withhold public supported health insurance for all citizens.

Greed is indeed alive and pro$pering in the USA and by our silence “we” support and endorse it continuing unabated into the future.