There are shareholder advocate groups out there complaining about all large corporation CEO pay Tom. CEO pay at large corporations has increased 10-20 fold over the past two decades. Explain to me the fundamental changes in capitalism they have implemented that justifies these levels of reward. You are at least correct that the majority are not as underserving as the bank presidents and wall street Titans, but a tenfold increase in pay for performance at or below the historical standard is highly questionable.

My grandfathers business employed 50 to 100 people across three states (OH, GA, FL) and consisted of a farm in GA where queen bees were raised for the Sears catalogue along with produce to ship back on the trucks that were empty after moving bees from OH to docks in FL along the Appalachacola river where tupalo honey was generated. The machinery for the business was made in a small Ohio town in the same building where honey was rendered for sale. I believe they also moved bees to other states in the Eastern US during flowering season to generate different forms of honey as they also worked with one of the congressional fossils families (Byrd or Thurmond). My grandfather employed skilled machinists to make his rough designs for boats and trucks needed for the business into reality and used in house built versions of semis before they were commonly available. Don't know who designed his processing equipment, but I think he was heavily involved in that as well. That's innovation not taking over an exisiting company then mandating 10% cost reductions and doing nothing much more than pestering people where's my 10% and reorganizing your corporate officers and divisions so that know one knows who the hell is in charge.

My aunt grew up with the hoi palloi attitude of a big fish in a small pond, but my Dad was more just one of the guys. It was he who got my grandfather restoring and collecting antique cars in retirement back when old cars were mostly considered junk. Most of what's left after 30 years of retirement of the modest wealth my grandfather collected is tied up in those. My father used an old Duesenberg given to him as a high school graduation present to build a significant (in quality and value) rare car collection (only about a third or less of it is now from my grandfather) working his ass off restoring that and subsequent acquisitions at night after working his day job for over 30 years plus 20 more in "retirement". The Duesenberg my dad restored is still winning 2nd and 3rd prizes in auto shows 25 years after it was first restored.

You aren't talking to some dirt poor jealous beggar who doesn't understand the value of hard work or who is unlikely ever to have a large pile for the taxman to eye. I look at what I've done, what my father has done, and what my grandfather did and feel fully justifed in judgeing the pay/performance of others when it is clearly way beyond the norm. If reward is supposed to be based on work accomplished, extreme pay should only be rewarded for phenomenal accomplishments, not simply being the best politician in your company. You blather incessently about principles of capitalism, but are blind to blatant violations of them simply due to a libertarian mindset.

Regards,
Mark