I suppose this really isn’t news to the KOS community, but it’s mildly reassuring to see this from a more "traditional/MSM" source. No matter how you read this story, these guys are War Profiteers in the grand old tradition of Prescott Bush. Highlights after the fold.
The numbers are staggering:
CEOs at top defense contractors have reaped annual pay gains of 200% to 688% in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The chief executives at the seven defense contractors whose bosses made the most pocketed nearly a half-billion dollars from 2002 through last year.
The CEOs made an average of $12.4 million a year, easily more than the average corporate chief. Since the start of the war, CEOs at defense contractors such General Dynamics (GD, news, msgs), Halliburton (HAL, news, msgs) and Oshkosh Truck (OSK, news, msgs) have made, on average, more in four days than what a top general makes in a whole year, or $187,390.
And one last obvious observation that bears repeating:
A 2006 study by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy titled "Executive Excess 2006: Defense and Oil Executives Cash in on Conflict" cites three reasons:
Extravagant executive compensation at these companies isn't in keeping with the spirit of shared sacrifice that our country has always called for in time of war.
Those rich pay levels may drain talent from the military services.
Third, high profits and above-average pay for execs at defense contractors creates the risk -- or at least the appearance -- that a war might be prolonged for profit motives
The study's conclusion is this: "The vast potential for war profiteering should be of even greater concern during this war because of the extent to which the war and the reconstruction effort have been privatized."
I encourage you to read the whole article, comment on it and rate it 5 stars.