Imagine a choice among 5 or so options to be made. Choose the "wrong" one and you get nothing. Any of the other 4 and you get at least a few million. But, choos

Imagine a choice among 5 or so options to be made. Choose the "wrong" one and you get nothing. Any of the other 4 and you get at least a few million. But, choose the "right" one and you get $1Bn. There's a guy who already knows which is the "right" one. How much are you willing to pay him for the 10 seconds of work it would take him to tell you which it is? That's the idea behind high executive compensation. I agree, it very rarely works out quite that way IRL, but lots of people are quite attached to this fantasy.