I just have to get this out of my head. Gonna just say it and move on. Basically this post comes down to simple math and a simple comparison.

The entire country is in a tizzy because CEOs of big companies are making too much money. Both candidates are calling for government intervention on the heals of an approximately $850B bailout + pork bill that they just passed all the while judging CEOs and company managers for making money and being compensated. Apparently a CEO isn’t allowed to be compensated for a real job, and also apparently the government thinks that they are a better judge of just compensation than corporate boards of directors.

I won’t get into the entire early 90’s government push to force banks and mortgage companies to lower their lending standards. Or the subsequent credit crises that the government and organizations like ACORN actually caused that put companies like Lehman Brothers in the position that they are in. i won’t even say that I am defending banks or corporate America in this crises even though I think that it is pretty crappy to hold Wall Street and Corporate America responsible for being caught between politics and consumers who should have been told “no, I will not lend you money to buy that house, you can’t afford it.”

No, I want to do some simple numbers and let you, the gentle reader be the judge.

The CEO of Lehman Brothers made a reported $484M in salary and stock options over the last nine years. That is an average of $53M a year to oversee a 24k employee company that up until recently was managing hundreds of billions in investments and accounts. And as stated by the CEO during his Congressional hearing, those investments even included hundreds of billions in US Treasury bonds (read debt) as well.

By way of comparison Tiger Woods has averaged an income of $128M a year, or $1B over the last nine (give or take a million or two). Mr. Woods does not over see an operations managing 24k employees. He does not manage an investment portfolio in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Mr. Woods hits and chases a little white ball.

Can someone, anyone, please tell me why it is okay for him to make 2.4 times more money a year than a CEO of a major American company and no one EVER complains about his profit?

To be honest…I wish no ill will to either man. I like the American Dream. I like the fact that each and everyone of us has the options to be successful in our lives. If success means money, there are a plethora of opportunities. This country is rich beyond rich. And that is shared by us all, the good and the bad. In other countries…say Saudi Arabia, unless you are of the Royal Family you probably have less than a snow ball’s chance in hell to make that kind of money. But here, here everyone has that chance.

The flip side of that is ofcourse either we all do…or none of us do. Is it fair, as was asked to the Ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers? Is it fair in the United States for a man to make $484M to run a large company? Yes. Just like it is fair for a grown man chasing a little white ball to make $1B in the same time period. And just like it is fair that in that same nine years I haven’t even made $500k.

The point is simple. If you can’t see it…I don’t really know what else to say. We all have the same shot at life. And America is one of the few countries that guarantees that shot. You are not guaranteed success…just your shot. Either we ALL have the right to take that shot and not be judged for it…or none of us do.

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