Now, mind you, the median income (including “salaries, bonuses, long-term incentives, and grants of stock and stock options”) of chief executive officers of 200 major American corporations, according to the WSJ, dropped by fully 0.9% to a measly $6.95 million.
And, in the long-term incentive category, the median fell 4.6% to $5 million. But $7 million (or even $5 million) are not, as my uncle used to say, bupkes.
These horribly depressed pay statistics include Steve Jobs at $1 and Warren Buffett at $100,000, which means that they are also artificially depressed. And then there are the rank injustices on the “up” side. The CEO of Aflac, which brought us those horrendously irritating ads--you know, the ones with the quacking duck, earned just under $13 million in 2009. He should have been fined $13 million just for disturbing the public peace.