Ohh,
now I get it . . . So, the Republicans keep telling us that our soldiers are being killed in Iraq to "protect our way of life," right?
Well, I guess "our" way of life means BushCo's pals' way of life - y'know, the big fat-cat CEOs who make millions of dollars a year selling the tools of war, and the petroleum products that drive the war.
And, indeed, their way of life is definitely being protected by the war in Iraq, according to a study (PDF file) released today by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. As Derrick Z. Jackson writes in a column in today's Boston Globe, the study shows that certain CEOs with blood-soaked hands are doing quite well, thank you very much:
(Also available at My Left Wing)
As soldiers have died in displaying personal patriotism, the pay gap between soldiers and defense CEOs has exploded. Before 9/11, the gap between CEOs of publicly traded companies and army privates was already a galling 190 to 1. Today, it is 308 to 1. The average army private makes $25,000 a year. The average defense CEO makes $7.7 million.
``Did this surprise us? No, because we've been watching since Sept. 11," said Betsy Leondar-Wright, communications director for United for a Fair Economy. ``While the rest of us were worrying about terrorism and mourning the people who died, the CEOs were maneuvering their companies to take advantage of fear and changing oil supply, not just for competition but for personal enrichment."
Look, you're lucky you have a job, f'cryin' out loud. Now quit whining and get back to work - you've still got 4, 278 years to go to catch up to your CEO for this year:
The pay gap between the average oil and gas CEO and the average oil worker is 518 to 1. The general national CEO to worker gap is 411 to 1. The report said that the typical oil construction laborer would have to work 4,279 years to match the $95 million pay last year for Valero Energy CEO William Greehey.
Or, you could just pool all the labor for a million Iraqis for three months, and then you'd be able to pay for the 34 highest-paid executives. From the report:
In the four years since the War on Terror began, the 34 defense CEOs in our sample have pocketed a combined total of $984,008,400. To put that huge sum in some perspective, it would be large enough to cover the entire wage bill for more than a million Iraqis for a year.
Did someone say, "But my portfolio!"
Wall Street has taken notice. Between the end of the year 2000 and the end of 2005, the share prices of the 34 companies in our sample increased 48 percent on average, compared to a 5 percent drop for the S&P 500 during that period. This has translated into big paydays for defense industry executives. In fact, defense CEO pay has risen even faster than our mushrooming military budget. The value of all Department of Defense contracts rose 75 percent between 2001 and 2005, while pay for the 34 defense CEOs in our sample rose 108 percent.
Perhaps the most sickening example of war profiteering is that of HealthNet CEO Jay Gellert.
. . . Gellert has seen his fortunes soar as the massive deployment of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has boosted demand for the company's managed care services. Between 2002 and 2005, Gellert took home more than $28 million, 1,134 percent more than his $2.3 million compensation over the four preceding years.
Thanks to Pentagon outsourcing, Health Net currently holds contracts to provide health services to as many as three million active duty military personnel, veterans and family members. Health Net revenues from military contracts, the company notes in its most recent 10-K report, increased by $286 million in 2005 "resulting from a rise in demand for private sector services as a direct result of continued and heightened military activity."
[snip]
Health Net, sums up company spokesperson Steve Cell, helps "servicemen and women and their families deal with the issues of troop mobilization around the world and issues of the conflicts that they're dealing with."
"That," he adds, "is a fast-growing business for us." [snip]
What would happen to Health Net if troops were withdrawn from Iraq? Health Net CEO Gellert isn't worried. His company, he told an institutional investor recently, will do fine even if troops withdrew from Iraq since the military's own medical capacity will be stretched "into the foreseeable future" by the huge number of injured troops.
Please don't vomit, or punch your monitor - it's not the computer's fault.
Instead, why not be bullish on the war, and jump on the Blood-for-Profit bandwagon? There's money to be made!
Side note: Here's how MSNBC.com reported this story today:
WASHINGTON - A study by two liberal groups says the chief executives of corporations making big profits from the war on terror are enjoying far bigger pay increases than CEOs of non-defense companies.
Presumably, then, whenever independently verifiable statistics come out of the Hoover Institution or the American Enterprise Institute, they are labeled as emanating from "conservative groups," right? Sure.