CEO pay of big companies !?

Nope. I disagree.

While I find it somewhat astounding of how much some CEOs make - it's still a free market. They have the right to pay their executives what they make because it is a privately funded company. How would you like it if someone said that they needed to cut prices so you can only make 2.00 an hour? Oh wait. They can't do that. There is a minimum one can get paid due to the cost of living. The same is to be said for how much one can make. Being able to work your way up in a company means you have the opportunity for financial growth.

I bet the CEO of Blue Cross makes a lot (oh wait, I know they do since I work there), but at the same time I know that eventually I could be making more than the president if I bided my time there as well! You think I go to work every day because I work for a morally stellar company? Heck no!

Disagree. First off, why should someone in the private sector have their pay based on the governmental sector? Will the CEO's get ALL of the other benefits that the president gets? Secret Service protection for life being one? Also, NO ONE becomes president for the money. That is COMPLETELY not the point of becoming president. You are really comparing apples to oranges. Also, people who run for President ALREADY have money. They really have no need for the money, they made their fortunes in the private sector JUST like these current CEO's are doing. Lastly, the president only makes his salary for 8 years AT MOST. Why should a CEO be forced to take a salary that the president only has to accept for a few years? If CEO's had the mentality of governmental employees, we would be paying MUCH more for EVERYTHING.

I don't care how much CEOs are paid as long as their performance justify their pay. Unfortunately, there are no reliable metrics that can be used to gauge a CEO performance. Unless we are able to develop accurate performance metrics, we'll likely to see similar controversies in the future. The article below gives a good explanation of the problem.

If you were the CEO of a major corporation and you knew that no matter how good you were, no matter how good your products were, no matter how much money you brought in for the stockholders, no matter how much you improved business ... that the most you would make would be $400K -- then where would your incentive be? Why should you bother trying, if you knew you weren't going to make any more than that?

The free enterprise system may be flawed, but at least it still rewards good business sense.