I am amazed, that it is always CEOs catching the heat and not football players, or pop stars who earn even "more undeserved" millions.
CEOs are everywhere, and easily swapped out.
There are ~13,780 "Athletes, Coaches, Umpires, and Related Workers" in the US making a mean of $86,090 for a total of $1.2B. (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_711200.htm)
There are ~202,360 "Chief Executives" making a mean of $ 197,840 for a total of $40B. (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes111011.htm)
Football players and pop stars get their own share of grief (remember the song "Money for Nothin'"?). Probably more than an appropriate 1/33 as much grief.
Is it fair that Joan shows up to work everyday at the Amazon warehouse busting her back, while Jeff works from his private plane making more money in few hours than Joan will ever see in a lifetime? That's what amazes me...
It's certainly nothing to sneeze at, but many of them were making more before they went into politics. And most of them have to maintain two homes, one in DC and another in their district. It's a small multiple of US average worker salary, but less than one order of magnitude (except for the President, who makes as much as ~12 average Americans).
Most are rich, but they were rich before. It's expensive to go into politics. It's not impossible to get into Congress without being rich, but most are.
Then there's the regulatory capture of being a politician then going to work for the companies that lobbied them.
They start rich, they get richer.
When I pay for a product I want the majority of my payment to go to the workers responsible for realizing the product not the CEO telling the workers what to do. We all know a company is destroyed if you remove all the workers, but not if you remove a CEO. The same cannot be said of celebrities.
Additionally I'm a fucking worker as are most people here. So of course it's a problem for me if the CEO is taking something that isnt considered a fair share by workers. I'm also 100 percent fucking aware of what my CEO actually does and how much he actually contributes.
What amazes me is the leaps of logic that CEOs formulate in order to justify their crimes and lie to themselves.
[0]I’m not trying to put down their musical or performance talent, just commenting on the fact that even the greatest entertainment products are still just entertainment products and certainly don’t justify a huge x compared to CEO’s just because one song is more popular than another.
I think it's quite narrow minded and downright evil to paint a picture as if this is what I'm doing.
I NEVER said the CEO doesn't matter. But certainly he doesn't matter as much as you and their salaries imply. Jobs died, guess what happened to Apple? Nothing. Steve jobs matters, but along with every other CEO in the world, if he suddenly dies, life goes on and not much happens to the company.
Additionally what the hell is this garbage about assembly workers pushing buttons? That's just one step in a highly complex process. There's designers, engineers, programmers and assembly workers. All of these people combined contribute far more than Steve Jobs saying, "build me a touch screen phone." Certainly you need someone to give the order but in no way is this person a critical part of the equation. You saying this is a deliberate distortion of what I am saying. The best word to describe it is: lies.
>[0]I’m not trying to put down their musical or performance talent, just commenting on the fact that even the greatest entertainment products are still just entertainment products and certainly don’t justify a huge x compared to CEO’s just because one song is more popular than another.
Yeah great job covering your ass while distorting and twisting my point. No dude. CEO's as they stand today deserve far less than celebrities. The entire operation falls apart without a celebrity. Not so for the CEO.
CEOs are an important part the equation for a product. But they are also the least important when compared to the rest of pipeline. The CEO is replaceable, the pipeline is not.
Football players destroy their bodies for 2-4 years (average career length) of ~$860,000/year (median NFL salary). Be angry at football team owners instead.