Random thoughts on “executive compensation”

1. Can the top execs of banks and financial institutions really not do their job on a mere, say, 5 million a year? Is that simply too paltry? Will execs leave their jobs en masse if they are limited to 5 million a year? And where will they go? Will they all become car wash mangers on principal?
2. Executive compensation is not what caused the financial crisis. Executive stupidity is what did. Curbing pay will unfortunately not have the effect of curbing stupidity. As such, there needs to be regulation in place that does more than just limit compensation, but at least pretends to attempt to limit the avenues of stupidity for execs to go down.
3. Why are we calling it “compensation”? I get a salary. The car wash manager gets a salary. Apparently when you’re in a certain bracket even the vocabulary gets elevated.
4. Why are we worried about the execs leaving? Pay them a “salary” and let them go if they can’t function on 5 million a year. Isn’t their “talent” what got us into trouble in the first place? Their “talent” that pushed over 100 banks into failure? Their “talent” that is now repenting at leisure with our tax dollars?
5. Heart surgeons are talented. First grade teachers are talented. Pilots who have your life in their hands at 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and can land safely on a strip of asphalt are talented. If these people earned 5 million a year in “compensation” it would be ok with me. People who create imaginary financial investments with formulas that cannot be explained or understood by anyone outside of their “talented” circle are not contributing something to society worthy of their current level of compensation. I would like every school teacher who can’t afford pencils for their classrooms, every doctor who is taking organs out of people’s bodies on two hours of sleep per night, every pilot who is on his 12^th hour in the air but can’t afford health insurance, to simply leave their jobs. An exodus of talent. And good luck to the bankers and their compensation. The talent is moving to Barcelona.