One of the commentators on an earlier blog, which discusses my success in making PG&E disclose their executive compensation, tells me that I have a responsibility to do more to stop outrageous payments to PG&E executives.
I can’t do more. Not because I wouldn’t like to and not because I don’t have the skill to do more, but because there is no public outrage about excessive executive compensation to draw on. The fact that the CEO of a public company with rates regulated by the government should get paid $23 million in one year doesn’t seem to bother the public.
The reason is simple. Every American knows that hundreds of men in their twenties get paid millions of dollars a year to hit, kick and throw a leather ball. A few of these athletes earn more than the $23 million per year of the PG&E CEO.
Considering that most CEOs have worked in their industry for more than twenty-five years, that they shoulder the burdens of dealing with employees, managers, unions, legal problems, public stockholders, high powered investors, government agency demands, complex financial requirements, customers and the routines of daily family life, the athletes seem to be the ones who are overpaid.
Public outrage about excessive executive wages seems to have gone the way of hostility to “the rich.” Evaporated. Most Americans aren’t bothered by someone else’s wealth.
I didn’t make the world the way it is. If you are unhappy with excessive corporate pay or concentrated wealth, blame in on the relentless success of commerce.