This is the beauty of surplus labor, and it is the reality. The sooner the American working man accepts it the better. If you don't like what the current major equipment manufacturing companies are paying, then start your own major equipment manufacturing company.
What is really sad that 20 years ago we were told, by a billionaire, and we as a nation tarred and feathered the man.
There are two separate issues involved here. One is worker pay. The other is CEO pay. If we are lecturing workers that they have to take what the market says is fair pay, not some artificial wage based on union extortion, then we have an obligation to apply the same logic to CEO pay. My thesis is that there has been a massive breakdown in corporate governance regarding executive compensation. We have a bunch of CEO's sitting on each other's boards playing scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. If they feel they deserve tens or hundreds of millions, then let them start their own businesses or hedge funds. I am pretty sure we can import thousands of chinese or Indian CEOs to run their companies if we can't find any Americans willing to do the job for a few million. These obscene comp packages are not only hurting shareholders. They provide an opening for demagogues like Obama to exploit the corrosive politics of envy and class hatred. In the end, we all suffer.
This is totally unsupported imo. You can relatively easily find cheaper workers elsewhere, like Asia, but a smarter, more capable executive team is worth $billions to the company - ergo, the present situation. If the CAT folks don't watch out, they'll go the way of the automotive industry, and several other examples of wrong calculation on that front. The bottom line is: you want a better job? get an education, make a difference... you want to stay at the bottom of the scale? you'll be forever replaceable either by a machine or by a hungrier competitor overseas.