I've seen figures where in the 80's the CEO's only made like 10 times the pay of the average worker and now they make something like 1000 times the pay of the average worker. Dont quote me on that but the differences are quite dramatic. What i dont understand is why do the republicans not find that offensive? The way things are going right now America will be the next Brazil over the next 100 years.
Japan was where the ratio of CEO to Janitor pay was a phenomenally low 7:1 a few decades ago but they went with the West on that in recent years.
Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2009 11-1011 Chief Executives Mean annual wage $167,280 http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes111011.htm
We were about the same here some 30 years ago...Believe it's close to 30-40:1 now...just couldn't find the info... Middle Class is disappearing...
Why am I expecting a wave of posts accusing the OP of being some kind of anti-capitalist pinko liberal? OK, I'll save everyone the trouble and play devil's advocate here, "come on now, every patriotic American is for rugged individualism. If you have the education, ambition, unrelenting greed, know-how, ancestry and political connections to rig the system totally in your favor, then you DESERVE to make any amount you damn well please. All those people at the bottom of the food chain are free to compete in any way they see fit. How much more fair can it be? Besides, if those losers weren't so lazy, they would all be CEO's too!"
I feel lucky in that I was the last generation able to get in on the gravy train before the train left the station. The Millenials are fucked, they are really screwed.