An article in Reuters summarizes the growing problem of excessive corporate compensation...CEO pay article
A section gives startling numbers...
In 2005, the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay was 411-to-1, according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, two groups that focus on social justice issues. That compares with a 1980 ratio of 42-to-1, as calculated by BusinessWeek, the two groups said
I can't find the article, but several months ago Hapers had this amazing graphic on income inequality that compared people's wages to their relative height. In today's society some insane amount of people are actually of negative height, and even those of us who would be considered middle class aren't fully above the ground.
I always struggle to explain why this bothers me so much. Is it a sense of unfairness? Is it fear of what people with access to such immense resources will do? Is it the power wielded by people not elected and accountable to nobody? Presumably it is a combination of these things, but still there is no platform there. No catchy phrase that would start a populist uprising or human example to generate palpable anger. So I read the article and wonder why it bothers me so much.