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

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:03 AM 17/02/04 +1100, Deus Ex Machina wrote:
>this expression of socialist equality where no one is worth much above the
>average pretty much died last millenium. the market reality is that some 
>people
>are paid what they get (be it 1s, 10s or 100s of millions) (and one of the 
>top US CEO salaries
>last I looked was $750m) because they generate far greater value then what 
>they
>are paid. if you pay more for talent, be it an executive, an actor or 
>sports figure
>then they generate in earnings for you, its a bad business decision. 
>economics 101

Granted, it's 101, but I would suggest it's Maths 101 and not 
economics.  The choice of measure surely has something to do with it, as 
well as the relative size context of the market.  The US companies that may 
pay large amounts are in a large market where the potential value generated 
is going to be high to start with because the potential market is already 
higher.

And the use of percentage increases instead of absolute increases also 
causes problems in measure and can make things appear, if not actually be, 
unfair.  The number of 0000s does make a difference.  3% increase against a 
$30,000 wage is quite different in actual result from 3% of a $3,000,000 
package. [$900 vs $90,000, or a tip ready 1982 Holden vs a new Lexus].

Jan [who is wondering why Tony hasn't beat us up about being so far off 
topic yet]


JLWhitaker Associates
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at melbpc.org.au  --  http://member.melbpc.org.au/~jwhit/whitentr.htm
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