How come Apple get a pass on the “Evil Empire” tag.

[Bobby Mosca]

I think right now they get a pass because they are given a pass. It’s all momentum, or maybe a feedback loop. Apple is the perpetual motion machine of positive imaging. It won’t last, but only because it never has.

And all companies don’t become evil. Some don’t survive long enough to get that far. The rest either go out of business altogether or lose their perch and lumber on in obscurity.Apple will not stay where they are.

As far as CEOs go, remember that the vast majority of them make far less than many of the actors or athletes you can name. I think the thing that gets stuck in people’s craw is that they are either very smart and educated or know very smart and educated people that don’t make nearly what they think they are worth. What they don’t realize is that this is how it should be. No one will pay you one red cent for what you know, no matter how valuable. You can only be paid for what you do. Very, very few people can do what CEOs do, especially the a big dogs like Tim Cook.

[Clint Wardlow]

[Bobby Mosca] ” Very, very few people can do what CEOs do, especially the a big dogs like Tim Cook.”

So why is it that CEOs in this country make such a disproportionate amount compared to the work force than with other countries? Are American CEOs just better?

And also a CEO can go in, totally ruin a company and still get out with a multi-million dollar golden parachute. I don’t think it is people are pissed because a CEO makes good money, its just that the gap between the rich and the rest of us has grown a whole lot in the last 20 years.

[Tim Wilson]

[Clint Wardlow] ” I don’t think it is people are pissed because a CEO makes good money, its just that the gap between the rich and the rest of us has grown a whole lot in the last 20 years.”

To put it in corporate terms rather than political ones, but still agreeing with your point, I don’t like the increasing gap between CEOs and other workers when the CEO is f^cking up, especially in ways that harm workers (ie, empty their pension funds).

I also resent the whole “I’m just taking a salary of $1.” That just tells me that a) you have an assload of other sources of income, and b) you’re dodging taxes.

Other than that, if you’re doing the basics right, get paid as much as you can. If you’re guiding the process of adding massive value to your company, tens of millions or more in various compensations doesn’t bother me a bit. Are the stockholders and employees properly provided for? Then go for it.

(Looking at it that way, I think that most elite athletes and entertainers are UNDERPAID relative to the revenue they generate – by elite meaning consistently creating value.)

That said, yeah, underperforming CEOs getting fortunes for their f^ckitude is the kind of thing that potentially undermines the whole economy.

[Chris Jacek]

[Bobby Mosca] “Very, very few people can do what CEOs do”

This is because most successful CEOs are sociopaths. Most of us could not do what they do, because we have consciences. In order to be one of the big dogs today, getting 8 or 9 figure bonuses each year, you must willingly do things that will hurt or even kills thousands, if not millions, or people.

I know it sounds like hyperbole, but there have actually been numerous studies supporting this position. Being able to act without any regard for how your actions affect others is a common personality trait among the CEOs of the most successful corporations. This character trait is clinically known as sociopathy or psychopathy.

I’m not saying that Jobs or Cook fall/fell into that category (Jobs could certainly have been labeled Narcissistic), but I think it is pretty clearly the case with others, like the Koch brothers, or the CEOs of the major oil and health care corporations.

Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee