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put together, the robots making the Fords wouldn’t be turned on... and so on. And for all of their ills, CEOs do play an important role in shepherding the rest of everyone. But I think we can agree that there’s a fundamental unfairness to the way things work now. Even if we put aside that angle... I think it’s high time that shareholders rattle the cages of CEOs. In my mind, the only reason to pay someone as exorbitantly as so many CEOs are paid is if there is truly no one else on Earth available (at practically any price) to perform the job. And that’s obviously not the case, particularly for lousy CEOs who could be easily replaced by a pet rock. Is there no one else around interested in – and plenty capable of – being the CEO of AT&T? Of course there is. And they’d likely do a better job, since they could hardly do a worse job than the present guy. Re: John Boehner Book Review P.J., Some flavors are too strong for the hoi polloi, but Limburger & all the other stinky cheeses are a wonderful accompaniment to flavorful beer. Oh yeah, I get a kick out of Boehner, too (despite being a Left-leaning Independent). Unfortunately, the Trump Republican Party gives me only Democrats to vote for. I hope the voter suppression mania is strongly repudiated by the voters in 2022 so that the Republicans will be forced to reject Trumpism. – Clarke K. P. J. O’Rourke Comment: Clarke, your note is a testament to how much a Left-leaning Independent and a Right-leaning Libertarian
for Apple’s enterprise value. Yes, the exceptional person may provide a morale boost, thus raising general productivity. We hope they get promoted. CEOs are, of course, often value killers, having only the goal of short-term equity prices in mind to the exclusion of everything else. How about, for example, a federally mandated 10-year escrow on all non-cash comp for corporations above a certain enterprise value? Why is this idea never discussed? I get escrowed regularly on my generally worthless penny-stock option grants so the mechanisms exist. – Matt L. I’m not a socialist. I’m a conservative republican. But I detest CEO greed. Publicly shame the CEOs – for sure. But if you start preaching socialism, you will lose me and millions of others. – J.C. Kim Iskyan Response: Matt and J.C., thank you for your thoughtful comments. I’m no fan of socialism – living in the former Soviet Union for 12 years, I had a front-row seat to the devastation it wreaks – but in the case of CEO pay (and how workers are treated), I think we’re missing a critical middle ground. Matt, you remark that workers don’t account for all, or even most, of the value created by a firm – but CEOs don’t either, by your reckoning (I hope I’m not twisting your words here). And JC, you don’t like CEO greed but are allergic to the scent of socialism. Yes, most workers are fungible, as you point out, Matt – but without them, the burgers wouldn’t be flipped, the iPhones wouldn’t be
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June 2021
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