[extropy-chat] Why I am No Longer a Libertarian Either...

[The Avantguardian]

--- "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew at ceruleansystems.com>
wrote:

> This is just rehashing popular misconceptions of the
> role and character of
> the typical CEO, a Hollywood caricature far removed
> from reality.

Well since I have never been a CEO or even know a CEO,
you have the advantage of me.
 
> The vast majority of CEOs at companies big and small
> are worth every penny
> of what they are typically paid, which is much less
> than the few outliers
> that people think is "normal" -- $250k is in the
> ballpark of average CEO pay
> in the US.

I think $250k is perfectly reasonable. It's the
companies that lay off half their employees so that
they can pay their CEO $5M a year that I object to.

>  The CEO does all that other stuff,
> including "schmoozing", but
> if one understands the ROI a good CEO delivers as a
> function of his job, it
> is easy to see why the investors and BoD is willing
> to pay them what they are paid.

Why is the investment of liquid capital by the
shareholders of a company more important than the
labor capital that employees invest in a company? Why
is there no concern for the ROI of the guy who worked
20 years for the company and is getting "downsized"
before he secures his pension to boost the bottom
line?  

> A CEO is responsible for capital
> management, in the most abstract
> sense.

Is it wise to abstract people? To make every employee
a statistic? Is this a responsible use of power?

>  Mostly
> people have only heard of a
> few, like the Enron folks. There is a perception
> that there is no
> consequences for bad behavior among "C-level"
> executives, but that is
> patently untrue.  As someone who is close to the
> business, it is routine to
> hear about so-and-so executive being sent to prison
> or some other Silicon
> Valley under-performer being sent to the poorhouse. 
> Just because no one
> ever hears about it does not mean that justice does
> not happen.

You are right in that I have not heard of all these
things, but it seems a fair trade. Power should have
its price. The pharoahs of ancient Egypt would be put
to death if the Nile flooded its banks and killed the
crops. Not that the pharoahs could have reasonably
prevented this, but if one claims to be decended from
the gods, people have high expectations of one. As far
as Silicon Valley/ Dot-Com CEOs, I think that even in
business circles, they are a relatively new phenomena,
and can't be fairly compared to CEOs of well-heeled
blue chip companies.
 
> The very idea that
> business is led by grossly
> incompetent executives in the typical case is
> contradictory with the readily
> available evidence prima facie, but it is ever so
> popular to paint people in
> capitalist enterprise with the few spectacular
> outliers in their midst.

Well my contention was not that CEOs are incompetent,
just that they don't do all that much except make a
bunch of investors, who do even less, happy. The
smaller and more speicalized ones skill-set, the more
competent one would be expected to be at it. As far as
the outliers, you are probably right about that, but
they are the only ones the public ever really hears
about, so don't blame the public for its
misconceptions.
 
> The whole notion reeks of anti-capitalism propaganda
> and betrays a basic
> unfamiliarity with the reality of the business.

Even if the "Hollywood caricature" is pretty far-off
from reality, I would hardly call it anti-capitalism
propaganda as it glorifies the profession even as it
misportrays it. Unless you call any morality play
calling for reservation or restraint in the mad
scramble for wealth anti-capitalist propaganda.


The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson


		
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