CEO Salaries

The salaries of CEO’s have risen dramatically over the past 30 years and one of the reasons is that the system has been corrupted. Specialists are hired to determine salaries and they base their recommendations on other CEO salaries. This has led to a case of the dog chasing the tail and higher and higher pay is the result. Over this time the average pay has gone from 25 times what the regular employee makes to over 250 times. The average CEO today makes $10 million dollars where the average employee makes $40,000. As I was mulling over the unfairness of this caused by the free market being corrupted I discovered that this week a baseball player signed a $325 million dollar contract that will pay him $25 million per year for 13 years. He gets this money even if he cannot play due to illness or injury. This young man is 25 years old, half the age when a CEO gets his job and at twice the pay. CEO’s rarely stay in their jobs for 13 years so the ball player will have his money at a much younger age and earn it for more years. This comparison is somewhat unfair since it compares the average CEO against the highest paid player but there are only 40 CEO’s who earn more that this young man.

New congress

As the new Republican controlled congress takes over in January, I have some suggestions to take place in the first 100 days. First of all seal the southern border and follow that up with a promise to offer citizenship to all the illegal aliens who are in the county except for those with criminal records and they will be dealt with, on a case by case bases. Change the existing immigration laws to allow foreigners who get their advanced degrees here to stay here if they choose. Second, open up the Green River Formation in the west and start the energy revolution that will provide good paying jobs, reduce the trade deficit and solve the problem of CO2 emissions. Approve the 16 permits to build LNG (liquefied natural gas) port facilities so the US can ship LNG around the world to Europe to reduce their dependency on Russia and to China to help with their smog problem. Pass legislation encouraging the move to natural gas for the entire transportation industry. Offer low cost loans to build natural gas stations at all truck stops and further low cost loans to retrofit all trucks to use natural gas. Begin the process of installing natural gas pumps at all car stations while setting the ground work for manufactures to produce cars that run on natural gas. Encourage industry by way of the EPA to move all power plants to natural gas. Lay out the plans to start utilizing methane hydrate, the almost unlimited supply of natural gas, found just off shore and use the process to sequester CO2 as they mine the gas. Recommend and approve the cost for The President to destroy ISIS using whatever means the military experts deem necessary. Increase economic pressure on Iran to halt their nuke program. On a piece by piece approach repair, change and delete Obamacare and build a program that will cover the poor using the existing Medicaid program. Tax reform to lower corporate tax rates and simplify the code. Allow US companies to bring home the two trillion dollars tax free that they now hold overseas.

Free press

I have said in the past that the free market capitalist system is the best in the world. I have further said that corruption is the enemy of this system and we must rely on government to police this system. If the regulators and the regulated get in bed together the system will fail. This happens on a regular basis but still relatively unusual. Here is one example. SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— A consumer-advocacy group says one of the recently-released emails between PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission shows the commission’s president pushed a backroom deal to award the utility tens of millions of dollars in exchange for political contributions. Note in this case it was not the constitutional free-press watch-dog that uncovered this situation but a consumer advocacy group. It is dangerous when the press begins to take sides on political issues and this seems to be happening all too often. The press is supposed to challenge the government at every stage and much of our press has been co-opted by the government. I want a press that causes politicians to be wary of all that they do and all that they say. I want them to know that our free press will be shining the light of transparency on their activities.

Pipeline

When told that the Keystone Pipeline would create 40,000 jobs the administration responded by saying that those jobs are only temporary and would end once the project was finished. That is true but the same administration is always calling for infrastructure jobs like roads and bridges and those jobs are also temporary and will end when the project is finished. This pipeline is only a small part of the many things that could be done regarding energy, the most important being opening the Green River Formation for drilling.

Wood burning

There is a 60 year old coal fired power plant in Marquette, MI that supplies the Upper Peninsula with most of its electricity. The plant lost its biggest customer and the owners want to close. The other alternative is to raise the electric rates to the people in the area and they cannot afford the increase it would take to make the plant profitable. It is suggested by a group of environmentalist that the area use wind and solar but there is a problem when the wind stops and sun goes down. Since electricity cannot be stored these energy sources need a back-up. Normally they use the grid and put excess power back and then withdraw when needed. The group, suggest that since there is ample wood in the area that a wood burning plant be built to augment the solar and wind. Wood, of course produces pollution but overall it would be an improvement over the coal plant. Checking with experts in wood burning it appears it takes more than most realize. How about in the UP, where we surely have lots of wood? The Presque Isle coal plant in Marquette needs replacement. It generates 450 megawatts annually. Replacing that coal with standing timber would require the annual growth of 4.5 million acres of forest land, or clear-cutting 112,500 acres (180 square miles) a year. There has to be some more planning before the use of wood to back up wind and solar proves feasible. This concept of moving ahead with wind and solar without adequate forethought seems to be prevalent as plan after plan has fallen apart.

Out-sourcing

The ultra wealthy get $2 trillion wealthier That is the headline in the news today. It goes on to say that the top .004% or 211.275 of the people in the world comprise these wealthy and their wealth increased by 2 trillion dollars. Just looking at that it seems patently unfair but to add to my previous argument that you cannot solve the problems of the poor by taking money from the rich, just look at the math. If you took that money and gave it to the rest of the people in the world they would each get $400. Now in a country like Bangladesh that would be several months pay but it would be an almost impossible task to get that money to the people not only because of logistics but many of those poor countries are so corrupt that the governments would keep the money. The standard of living in third world countries has improved dramatically over the past 20 years and that is the result of out-sourcing from western countries. The best way to help the poor people of the world is to keep the economic engine of the west alive and healthy. Currently one of the best ways to do that is to take advantage of the natural gas and oil reserves in the western United States. This will initiate an economic boom here and it will spread to the rest of the world. 14 March 2013 – The rapid growth of developing countries is propelling millions out of poverty on an unprecedented scale and radically reshaping the global system, according to a flagship United Nations report launched today.

Immigration

Immigration is once more in the news. As we stand now we have students who come here from places like India who major in science and engineering and when they finish many want to stay here and work but they are forced to go back home. On the other hand we have people come across the southern border illegally allowed to stay. More often than not they do not have the technical skills we so desperately need and many do not speak English. We have a program called H-1B that allows a limited number of high tech people to stay here and work but many want that program expanded to help cover the shortage of engineers and scientist we are currently experiencing. The answer to the current problem is to first seal the border and then offer amnesty to the illegals who are now here. President Reagan legalized 3 million illegals with the promise from congress that the border would sealed but that promise was not fulfilled. While many see this as a humanitarian problem most understand that it is all about politics. The proof is that if the people coming across the border were going to vote Republican then all the Democrats would be demanding that the border be closed and the Republicans would be pleading for the humanitarian treatment of these illegals.