CORPORATE "DEMOCRACY"

Remember that the term "shareholder" really means "owner" and you see how ridiculous the idiots who prattle about the free market really are:

At the same time, vested interests like the Business Roundtable, an association of 150 chief executives from major corporations, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are fighting a plan to give shareholders a limited right to nominate directors for the first time.
SOURCE: AP, 6/20/04

(I don't have the original link because this clip was made before I made a point to save links. Here's a link I found today)

I was motivated to post this because of this item that I read in my local paper:

AP IMPACT: CEO pay chugs up in '07 despite economy
By RACHEL BECK and MATTHEW FORDAHL – 18 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food.

In May, insurer Aflac Inc. became the first major U.S. company to give investors a vote on how senior management is paid, and shareholder proposals requesting an annual nonbinding vote on pay received slightly more support at U.S. companies this year.