OVERPAID CEO's

[regfootball]

So every year our paper prints the top executives pay here in MN.

CEO of Target, 'total compensation' 45 mill.

He may be good, but NOT THAT good.

and so on, and so on.

some guy in charge of lifetime fitness pulled in 40 mill......for renting floor space and treadmills.

to top it off some can't afford food and look what these guys make.

I wish it were practical to boycott these guy's companies so they go down the toilet and these guys get their salaries 'adjusted'. Problem is, the Target is one mile from my house and its a darn nice store and its handy, and it means I don't have to shop in a Walmart. Having to shop at Walmart is akin to having someone pour gasoline in your butt and then going in there with a large metal file to finsih the job.

Still, that's no excuse for one person to make that much.

Can we as a nation do ANYTHING to bring these guys down? What's wrong with making say, 2 million in lieu of 45 million?

Edited May 28, 2006 by regfootball

[Drew Dowdell]

I've refused to buy Exxon or Mobile gasoline for years.

[CSpec]

A quick search reveals that Ulrich "only" made $8mil in cash. The rest is calculated based on stock options and sales, the price of which is highly correlated to their performance.

[Enzora]

Can we as a nation do ANYTHING to bring these guys down?  What's wrong with making say, 2 million in lieu of 45 million?

Socialism

[bobo]

Does not anyone shed a tear for the stress that all this compensation brings them? They need more tax cuts to help them cope.

[cmattson]

I'm in a bit of a tough spot. My work has decided to switch healthcare plans. We used to have CIGNA (which sucks - see story below). Anyways, the bittersweet news is that we are getting a new healthcare plan - which I'm all for. Anybody is going to be better than CIGNA. The bad news: it's United Healthcare - one of the big scandal-ridden, rip-off healthcare companies. United has routinely made the news for their ridiculous executive compensation and now their CEO is getting bad press because his stock options were back-dated to coincide with the 52-week low-price for stock each year (for 4 years straight).

So why do I hate CIGNA? Let me give you an actual example (yes, this REALLY happened):

Our CIGNA plan is a 70/30 PPO - which means this: if your doctor/hospital/whatever is in the CIGNA "network", then CIGNA takes care of the bill, minus whatever co-pay and sometimes you have a deductible you hafta cover as well. If you go to a doctor/hospital/whatever that isn't in their network, you pay 30% of the cost. This is all pretty standard stuff.. so nothing unusual.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, we did some research and found that the hospital we liked (and was closest to our house) was an in-network hospital. You can have the hospital "pre-registered", were you can fill out all of the forms in advance of the blessed event so that everything is ready to go. My wife had a very normal childbirth - everything went great - no complications - everything 100% ordinary. CIGNA didn't pay for 10 months. I got bills and phone calls from various places for 10 freaking months - and CIGNA always had an excuse. I called them and called them and complained - and it went nowhere. The last straw was this: my son received a letter from CIGNA asking if the medical charges listed were the result of "workman's comp" injury. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I ended up throwing it in the file folder with the rest of their b.s. Another month went by and he received a second letter - with a nasty, threatening tone, warning that his correspondence was required. At this point, I photocopied everything and sent a copy to the state's attorney general's office, the better business bureau, and CIGNA themselves. The packet of crap was so big that I had to take it to the post office & have them meter it. I never heard from the BBB. The state's AG's office called a week later and mentioned that I should wait 4-6 weeks and if things weren't resolved, for me to call back & they'd pursuit things on my behalf. CIGNA ended up paying up at that point. How ASININE is that? 1) Mailing a 10-month old, 2) asking if his childbirth-bills was an on-the-job injury. Bastards!!!

[Flybrian]

A quick search reveals that Ulrich "only" made $8mil in cash. The rest is calculated based on stock options and sales, the price of which is highly correlated to their performance.

I find it hard to believe that Skeet Ulrich made that much at any point in the past half dozen years as he hasn't done anything even slightly significant since The Newton Boys

[regfootball]

I'm in a bit of a tough spot.  My work has decided to switch healthcare plans.  We used to have CIGNA (which sucks - see story below).  Anyways, the bittersweet news is that we are getting a new healthcare plan - which I'm all for.  Anybody is going to be better than CIGNA.  The bad news: it's United Healthcare - one of the big scandal-ridden, rip-off healthcare companies.  United has routinely made the news for their ridiculous executive compensation and now their CEO is getting bad press because his stock options were back-dated to coincide with the 52-week low-price for stock each year (for 4 years straight).

So why do I hate CIGNA?  Let me give you an actual example (yes, this REALLY happened):

Our CIGNA plan is a 70/30 PPO - which means this:  if your doctor/hospital/whatever is in the CIGNA "network", then CIGNA takes care of the bill, minus whatever co-pay and sometimes you have a deductible you hafta cover as well.  If you go to a doctor/hospital/whatever that isn't in their network, you pay 30% of the cost.  This is all pretty standard stuff.. so nothing unusual.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, we did some research and found that the hospital we liked (and was closest to our house) was an in-network hospital.  You can have the hospital "pre-registered", were you can fill out all of the forms in advance of the blessed event so that everything is ready to go.  My wife had a very normal childbirth - everything went great - no complications - everything 100% ordinary.  CIGNA didn't pay for 10 months.  I got bills and phone calls from various places for 10 freaking months - and CIGNA always had an excuse.  I called them and called them and complained - and it went nowhere.  The last straw was this:  my son received a letter from CIGNA asking if the medical charges listed were the result of "workman's comp" injury.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  I ended up throwing it in the file folder with the rest of their b.s. Another month went by and he received a second letter - with a nasty, threatening tone, warning that his correspondence was required.  At this point, I photocopied everything and sent a copy to the state's attorney general's office, the better business bureau, and CIGNA themselves.  The packet of crap was so big that I had to take it to the post office & have them meter it.  I never heard from the BBB.  The state's AG's office called a week later and mentioned that I should wait 4-6 weeks and if things weren't resolved, for me to call back & they'd pursuit things on my behalf.  CIGNA ended up paying up at that point.  How ASININE is that?  1) Mailing a 10-month old, 2) asking if his childbirth-bills was an on-the-job injury.  Bastards!!!

sounds like something to send in to CCO to plaster their name on the wall.

[deftonesfan867]

Well I have no problem with them making that much, but they should watch theyre company with a close eye, or atleast I would. Come to think of it, if I was in that position where I made that much, EVERYONE one of the blue-collared employees would get a nice semi-anuall bonus plus free health-care, and of course i'd give some to charity.

[FAPTurbo]

I don't care how much the CEO makes... just as long as their don't gouge the customer, or cook the books to advance their greed.

If they play by the rules and donate to charity and pay their employees fair wages, then I have no problem if their salaries are way larger than mine.

[RichW5]

Personally, I think the CEO pay of many large corporations is way out of line with their job performance.

However, if we apply this principle to CEO's, we should also apply it to sports stars with 60 or 100 million dollar contracts and movie stars, who make 20 million plus per picture. Most of those pictures stink anyway.

How about politicians, who retire from living off the tax payer, and write a book for millions of dollars.

What's the solution ....... tax the super rich, while eliminating the tax loopholes they use to keep most of their income. It'll never pass, because the super rich buy the politicians, who write the tax laws.

[regfootball]

Personally, I think the CEO pay of many large corporations is way out of line with their job performance.

However, if we apply this principle to CEO's, we should also apply it to sports stars with 60 or 100 million dollar contracts and movie stars, who make 20 million plus per picture. Most of those pictures stink anyway.

How about politicians, who retire from living off the tax payer, and write a book for millions of dollars.

What's the solution ....... tax the super rich, while eliminating the tax loopholes they use to keep most of their income. It'll never pass, because the super rich buy the politicians, who write the tax laws.

movie stars need to get knocked down. those pompous pricks make way too much. for putting out crap movies. nearly all movies are crap today.