Just in case you were worried, you can rest easier now. The news came through recently that America’s top paid business executives are getting better pay, again.
And just in time, too. In case you hadn’t noticed, the federal government is slowly admitting that we do have inflation in America — this despite the argument to the contrary that was sent to the nation’s senior citizens this year when they were informed there didn’t need to be any improvement in Social Security.
Fortunately, the best-paid of American workers are getting enough more than they did the year before — it’s up by about one quarter — that they will be able to live with the price hikes for white bread, off-brand mac and cheese and economy baloney.
Let’s just hope there is enough left over for them to pay their taxes. Oh, wait, that’s right. They don’t have to pay taxes under the current administration.
Anyway, here’s how the issue was explained recently by the Associated Press:
“CEOs at the nation’s largest companies were paid better last year than they were in 2007, when the economy was booming, the stock market set a record high and unemployment was roughly half what it is today.
“The typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 was $9 million in 2010, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data provided by Equilar, an executive compensation research firm. That was 24 percent higher than a year earlier, reversing two years of declines.
“Executives were showered with more pay of all types — salaries, bonuses, stock, options and perks. The biggest gains came in cash bonuses: Two-thirds of executives got a bigger one than they had in 2009, some more than three times as big.
“CEOs were rewarded because corporate profits soared in 2010 as the economy gradually got stronger and companies continued to cut costs. Profit for the companies in the AP analysis rose 41 percent last year.”
Just because there are no decent job openings. Just because our federal government continues to equate losing a family-supporting full-time manufacturing job with finding a food service part-time position. Just because you can actually see the prices rise every time you go in for groceries. None of that means that the nation is still in the grips of the Great Recession.
Just ask these CEOs. They can tell you how great times are, thank goodness.
Now we can sleep nights.
— Chuck Smith