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I think it’s a gross oversimplification to say that greed is perceived in a good light in the USA. Financial inequality and the ever-widening gap between CEO pa

I think it’s a gross oversimplification to say that greed is perceived in a good light in the USA. Financial inequality and the ever-widening gap between CEO pay and worker pay is a contentious subject in the USA as elsewhere. That being said, nobody does anything about it in the USA for various reasons, and I’ll accept that the USA is certainly one of the easier places in the world to get away with egregious greed.

anonu 7y ago
I employed a fair bit of hyperbole in my previous comment, so take it with a grain of salt. Japan and France, where Ghosn was CEO of 2 companies, have strict compensation caps for executives. In the USA there is no such thing. The cultural perception of making a lot of money is different in Japan and France vs USA.
- vonmoltke 7y ago
  > In the USA there is no such thing. That's not strictly true. There is a tax code provision that prohibits companies from counting executive compensation of over $1MM as an operating expense, the intention being to discourage high compensation by essentially putting an additional tax on the excess compensation. It's not very effective, particularly since "performance-based" compensation was exempt until a couple years ago. There are also harder limits for executive (and other people's) compensation in government contracting. Somewhat more effective than the above, but still not great.
- BrandoElFollito 7y ago
  What are the caps on France? The top CEOs are paid several tens of millions of euros. The limits are cultural to some extend, but I do not know of any legal ones (for private companies, the public ones do have legal caps)
lowmagnet 7y ago
It's that old Gordon Gekko trope that everyone takes as gospel here. I don't think Gordon was really a hero in that movie, but I beg to differ with other interpretations.
asiachick 7y ago
I don't understand this gap issue. Japan, CEO gets paid $1 million a year. Engineer makes $60k USA, CEO gets paid $100 million a year. Engineer makes $300k I much prefer the higher paid CEO as he's paying me 5x what my Japanese counterpart gets paid. On top of which in Japan I have to grovel up to my CEO and speak to them like royalty using super groveling language where as the CEO in the USA can call by their first name and treat them as just another person.

anonu 7y ago

I employed a fair bit of hyperbole in my previous comment, so take it with a grain of salt. Japan and France, where Ghosn was CEO of 2 companies, have strict compensation caps for executives. In the USA there is no such thing. The cultural perception of making a lot of money is different in Japan and France vs USA.

vonmoltke 7y ago
> In the USA there is no such thing. That's not strictly true. There is a tax code provision that prohibits companies from counting executive compensation of over $1MM as an operating expense, the intention being to discourage high compensation by essentially putting an additional tax on the excess compensation. It's not very effective, particularly since "performance-based" compensation was exempt until a couple years ago. There are also harder limits for executive (and other people's) compensation in government contracting. Somewhat more effective than the above, but still not great.
BrandoElFollito 7y ago
What are the caps on France? The top CEOs are paid several tens of millions of euros. The limits are cultural to some extend, but I do not know of any legal ones (for private companies, the public ones do have legal caps)

lowmagnet 7y ago

It's that old Gordon Gekko trope that everyone takes as gospel here. I don't think Gordon was really a hero in that movie, but I beg to differ with other interpretations.

asiachick 7y ago

I don't understand this gap issue. Japan, CEO gets paid $1 million a year. Engineer makes $60k USA, CEO gets paid $100 million a year. Engineer makes $300k I much prefer the higher paid CEO as he's paying me 5x what my Japanese counterpart gets paid. On top of which in Japan I have to grovel up to my CEO and speak to them like royalty using super groveling language where as the CEO in the USA can call by their first name and treat them as just another person.