Congress Capping CEO Salaries

The Congress is thinking about putting caps on CEO salaries. They think that CEOs do not earn what they are worth. That might be true. But what right does Congress have to determine what maximum anyone earns? The free market should determine this. In this case the salary of CEOs is a agreement between the board of the corporation and the CEO. Indirectly the stockholders of the company influence CEO pay electing the board members. So, what if the CEO is not earning his/her pay. If the business is not making profits then that only affects the stockholders and employees. No-one else. I don't think Congress is earning their pay either but their cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) keeps going up annually automatically unless the Congress votes not to accept the COLA (like they would do that). Know any businesses where the salary keeps going up automatically? I don't think so. But I digress.

To get a perspective of CEO salaries let's look at other people's salaries from Forbes.com.

Steven Spielberg	$ 332.00 mil.
Capital One CEO Richard D. Fairbank	$ 249.42 mil. total compensation
Yahoo! Ceo Terry S. Semel	$ 230.55 mil.
Oprah Winfrey	$ 225.00 mil.
Tiger Woods	$ 90.00 mil.
Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray R Irani	$ 80.73 mil.
Tom Cruise	$ 67.00 mil
Bruce Springsteen	$ 55.00 mil
50 Cent	$ 41.00 mil
David Letterman	$ 40.00 mil
Genzyme CEO Henri A. Termeer	$ 36.38 mil. (A pharmaceutical company).
Kobe Bryant	$ 31.00 mil
Walmart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr.	$ 10.46 mil
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer	$ 1.03 mil.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt	$ 0.03 mil.

If you look at the list above you will see that director/producer Steven Spielberg yearly salary is more than the top CEO. Do you think Congress is going to put a cap on his salary? I doubt it. Oprah Winfrey makes more than Occidental Petroleum's CEO and Walmart's CEO put together. Is Congress going to put a cap on her salary? Again, I doubt it. And I would not want Congress to put a cap on their salaries either. Let them make as much money as they want. As long as their are making it legally and not giving money to terrorist organizations, it is not of Congress or anyone else's concern. I read some of the lyrics of 50 cents. I think they are stupid and even insulting. I personally don't think he is worth 41 million dollars, but his fans do. They keep buying his music. Would it be right for me to tell him he can't make anymore money? Evidently, Congress thinks it has a right to do that on certain segment of the population.

Everyone's salary is dependent on their talent and skills on the job. Not just CEOs. That is why I included non-CEOs in the list.

What this really is just another example of punishing the successful. Or as liberals call it "economic justice." That is another name for socialism. Liberals in the Congress want the poor to believe if they cap the salaries of CEOs that this will somehow make the poor feel satisfied or happy in someway. Getting some kind of revenge on the rich. But that revenge feeling is a false feeling and does not last. It definitely does not help the poor. Being wealthy is not of itself evil. Just as being intelligent does not make one self necessarily good. It is what you do with those powers that determines your moral worth.

Talking about Congress here is their salaries:

Speaker of the House	$212,100
Congressional Leadership of the House or Senate	$183,500
Congressman	$165,200

Do you think they are worth that much money? Do you think they would ever consider capping their own salaries?