Clever buggers!
Here’s a story about companies that are “stealthily shrinking” their packaging and charging the same price on products in order to maintain their profits. It all seems rather shady, but one, I suppose, cannot expect them to announce on their boxes that they are doing this. What would that look like? “New and improved (for us): less for your money, whee!”
Much like the proposed sales tax rate, I realize the money’s gotta come from somewhere. If they don’t make enough on their products, they lay off workers. That’s bad. But, of course I have no idea if they are protecting a modest margin and solvency, or if they are paying millions of dollars to CEOs and need to keep those golden parachutes polished. I just don’t know.
I would, however, probably be much more irritated if it were, say Exxon Mobil pulling this stuff. Who knows, maybe they own some of these companies…
On a side note, my older brother remarked that CEOs should be allowed to make lots of money because they are being paid to do a job, and, after all, this country is not socialist. It would be a bad precedent to cap salaries in a (supposed) capitalist society. Curt, who also believes in capitalism, thinks CEO salaries are most certainly too inflated, and refuses to believe that companies could not recruit better people to do as good a job, and for less money. It’s not as if some of these CEOs have been doing great jobs, anyway.
These are both good points; we should not be able to tell people how much they can pay their executives, but at the same time, there does seem to be a lack of common sense in paying people such huge sums of money when their pay does not necessarily depend on whether the company remains solvent. More fool, them, I suppose. Until taxpayers have to foot the bill. Then it becomes rightfully vicious.
For my part, I remember reading a story about the late Kenneth Lay who, shortly after being convicted in the Enron scandal, threw a multi-million dollar birthday party for his wife. When questioned about the outrageous dichotomy, he responded by saying that it was difficult to switch lifestyles overnight.
What a strange state of affairs. Of course, I am most probably not qualified to give an in depth economic analysis of what we should do with this fine mess you’ve gotten us in, Stanley. After all, I only live here.
