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This is one reason why CEO pay has skyrocketed: hazard pay. Something goes wrong, even if the CEO had no idea about it, and who gets vilified and maybe even prosecuted? The CEO. Just saying...there are trade offs for everything.

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Is that really a reason for skyrocketing pay though? Struggling to come up with any instances where this actually happened and such "hazard pay" was "justified."

It's an excuse but not a good reason. The reason is more that people on top of the income/wealth divide have the power to give themselves more power and keep growing the divide, and they're unafraid of the risks that come with the reward. Populist uprisings are a thing of the past in the info age. The little people are sufficiently surveiled and controlled by the network, by partisan propaganda that keeps them infighting, etc.

Hazard pay? Why this sounding like CEOs do deep sea diving, welding huge oil pipes while squid and sharks look at you in a tiny cage with a few thousand amps of arc.

Let's call it what it is, It's a golden parachute.

I'd postulate that taking responsibility and leading the effort to genuinely right the wrongs would earn the company way more godwill from the people and media than activating your trump card which in this case is a mountain of cash to land on after successfully escaping responsibility.

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