The very first step in communication is to get your attention!  Let me ask you a question.

Who do you think has the greatest potential to have a direct impact on you and your family?  Is it? 

    a. President of the United States?

     b. Chief Executive Officers/Presidents of our Corporations?

     c. Members of Congress?

     d. Governor of your state?

 If you selected (b.) you are correct.

The Chief Executive Officers (CEO) & Presidents of our Corporations and Companies have the greatest potential to have a direct impact on you and your family!  It is they, who make the decisions to send your jobs overseas, move your job to another part of the country, downsize your job, work very hard to avoid union activity, etc.

When you look at the political affiliations of the CEOs and Presidents you find the following:           

        54% are Republicans

        33% are Independents (Strong leaning toward the RepublicanParty) 

        13% are Democrats

   Source: www.chiefexecutive.net

Note: Whenever I use facts, such as the percents above and/or other numbers, I will show you the source of the information.  This is not like those wild Internet emails you get full of lies and distortions.

SOURCES:

Income:

       . US Census Bureau: Historical Income Data 1947 - 2005

              . Congressional Budget Office Historical Effective Fed Tax Rates

              . Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez Analysis of Tax Returns

              .  Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America

              .  United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2006

Wealth:

       .  Economic Policy Institute State of Working America 2006-07

              .  Federal Reserve Board Survey of Economic Finances

              .  Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income & Product Accts

Let me repeat the percentages:

        54% are Republicans

        33% are Independents (Strong leaning toward the Republican Party)                         

        13% are Democrats

As you can see, even if the Independents combined with the Democrats they are still the minority; odds are very slim this would ever happen because most Independent CEOs have a strong leaning toward the Republican Party.  I have been around a fair number of CEOs so I know this to be true.

There is much more to this story than the party affiliations of these people.  As the years have passed, they (Republicans and CEOs) have quietly and with great subtly given the American people the shaft!!! 

Let me show you why and how I can say that.  (Incidentally, I am very confident in what I write because I spent many years as a member of Senior Management and have seen it first hand.)

Before I continue I want to let you know who I am talking to.

I am talking to you.  I mean all of you who toil in our many offices across the country.  I mean you, who smile at us across the counter, as we shop for our groceries, clothes, and everything else. 

I mean you, with the hard hat running the dozer, the crane, the circular saw, the welder, the carpenter, the boilermaker, the ironworker, the pipe fitter, the electrician, the operating engineer and all the others who have built this country. 

I mean you, the mechanic, the factory worker, the waitress, the baker, the retiree, the butcher, the cab driver, the miner, and the farmer. 

I also mean you students, teachers, supervisors, managers, small business owners, junior executives, programmers, accountants, sales reps, lawyers, and every other "professional". 

I have heard and seen too many of you put your faith in the Republican Party based on simple political ads, lies, condescending rhetoric, distortions of fact, etc.

Basically, if you have a "net worth" of less than a million dollars and earn less than $250,000 a year then I am talking to you!  If you are above these numbers and are still sensitive to others, I am happy for you and wish you well.  I hope everything continues to go well for you.  However, if you look down on working person or small business owner, it is doubtful you will care what I have to say.  Just be aware, the world turns over every twenty four hours.  (Remember the past three years)  None of us know what our situation may be tomorrow.

Let's get back to the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs/Presidents) of our Corporations and Companies.  We do not elect these people!  Many of you, who work for the various companies and corporations, may have never seen the person who runs the company.  He or she who has such a major control over your future.

To keep your attention, let me share some more facts with you.

Let's talk about pay.  I have put together a small chart/table for you.

When you discuss executive pay, you must discuss all of the different types of pay to include salary, bonuses & incentives (long term and short term), stock options(both common stock and preferred stock), deferred compensation, special pensions,etc.  Not all of their compensation is easily seen; things like massive special pensions.  You really need to read the prospective and annual report to find some of this information.   

There are several sources where this information can be found which include:

Economic Policy Institute;

New York Times (Study by Carola Frydman Harvard);

House Committee on Financial Services;

A general search using "executive pay vs. worker pay over time" will produce a significant number of references.  It is sometimes a little difficult to dig into these documents but some very special nuggets of information can certainly be found.

Consider the following chart:       

 * Production Workers

Lines 1, 2, and 3 show the wages of the average Production worker for the years 1960-1990. 

Line 4 is very important.  It shows the top 10% of executives, in 1960, earned 60 times more than the average Production worker. 

Lines 6 through 9 display the same information for the medium and lower level executives. 

Lines 10 through 18 show the same information for the years 2000 through 2006. 

Important!  Look at lines 4 and 13 to see what has been happening over time!  The top CEOs went from earning 60 times more than the average worker to 364 times more! 

Incidentally, in case you may be wondering about other countries.  The ratios for some other countries in 2000 (most recent I could find) as compared to the USA in the same time period are as follows:

              Japan - 11 times more than the average worker.

             Germany - 12 times more than the average worker.

              France - 13 times more than the average worker.

                 USA - 168 times more than the average worker.

I have to wonder how many jobs would have been saved if some of these massive incomes would have been invested in the companies instead of allowing the greed of these CEOs to take the money and run!

I suppose some of you will say these people worked hard to get where they are.  This may be true of some but it is as much "myth" as it is fact.   The old quote "It is not what you know but who you know" is very relevant in this case.   

Business Week magazine has a great data base regarding the executives of our Corporations.  A small amount of digging around in this data base will show you who the executives are and their relationships & associations with executives in other Corporations. 

The executives of your Corporation are on the Boards of Directors for other Corporations and vice versa.  (Makes for a nice cozy set up) 

The "network", at the top, is much tighter and much closer than most people think!  President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of the "military/industrial complex" in the 1950's.  Eisenhower was a Republican!

It is obvious, by the charts, our executives are getting very rich very fast while the rest of us are standing still or going backwards!

It has always been legend the Republican Party is for "the rich people" while the Democratic Party is for "the working people".  The more I research, the less it is a legend... it is a fact! 

The Republican Party is the party for "the rich people".  If you do not agree, check out the introduction by President Bush.

           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4daYJzyls

Just a couple more points:

1.  Most of these CEOs could care less where the job goes; the primary motives are profit, personal recognition, and personal wealth!  Is that a problem with the CEO or is that a problem with uncontrolled capitalism?  I really do not know.

2.  Regarding the Boards of Directors.  Pay attention to the severance packages of CEOs and other executives when they leave after screwing up their company beyond belief!  I actually heard of one executive who gets another very special and very high payout upon his death!  Wow!

You have all seen, very recently, what I am talking about.  The recent bonus situation with the people on Wall Street, etc.