[LINK] I'm going to throw something out there...

[Chirgwin, Richard]

>actually australian ceo are grossly underpaid, if you look at the
>average
>US sallary for ceo's youll find we generally pay peanuts.

Vic, this is satire, right? If there's a CEO job you want in the US, go for
it, son. 

>thats just an expression of the tall poppy syndrome and
>why australia finds it hard to get ahead, despite the
>tall poppy syndrome some australian do stick there necks out
>and make a go of it

Be serious. It assumes that the CEO as personality cult is a valid predictor
of business success, which is pretty hard to sustain in the face of Enron or
HIH or Bond Corporation or Quintex or ... 

But it's a silly argument. It ignores every externality, including relative
size of company ("Yes!! Let's pay the CEO of Bass Strait Oil more than the
company's market cap to put him in line with the CEO of Exxon!"). And as for
"holding Australia back", pullleaze. It's a statement which cannot be
debated, because even to mount an argument I would have to accept -
- that Australia is being "held back" according to a measure we both accept;
- that the presumed "held backness" is uniform - that we're not ahead in
some other measure; 
- that CEO "poverty" is genuine; 
- that CEO poverty is a significant contributor to "held-backness";
- that CEO poverty is attributable solely to tall poppy syndrome...

Etc. There are way too many postulates for that pill to be swallowed whole.

RC