Only the Republicans could properly destroy the very meaning of "free market" like this. For years the GOP has believed in helping the strongest get stronger and leaving the idea of competition in the past. It's no wonder they can't understand that we're in a recession and think we need more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. From the AFL-CIO blog:
Even as the U.S. economy went into a tailspin, the median salary for CEOs of 200 large corporations increased by 4.5 percent to $1.08 million. On top of that, these corporations keep plying executives with generous freebies, despite the public outcry over private jets and other executive perks.It pays to be a loser in their world. Too bad it doesn't work that way for everyone.
The 2009 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site, which launches today, points out that the perks for executives rose on average by 12.5 percent in 2008 to $336,248—or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker. Even more appalling is the practice of rewarding executives who drive their companies into the ground.
For example, the site reports that in 2007—the year the financial crisis began to unfold—the top 10 recipients of the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) collectively paid their CEOs a combined $242 million in total annual compensation. That averages nearly $25 million per CEO to run companies that might have gone bankrupt if not for billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance.
