Corporate America, Way Too Greedy At the Top
The New Orleans disaster has the pundits racing for meaning, trying to identify the direction in which American society seems to be moving. Many feel we've been plummeting steadily downward ever since those giddy days before 9/11.
America has lost its sense of itself, they lament. Maybe they’re correct. It’s certainly lost its sense of something. One searches the channels or newspapers or Internet for something, anything to cheer about and it’s heavy going. I have on my desk the announcement that new federal rules could allow power plants to pollute more, and I meant to write about it. But the headline that Mike Capellas, the CEO of MCI is to be due $39 million if he quits, takes precedence.
Due.
Interesting word. His predecessor, Bernard Ebbers is due to serve 25 years in prison, but then there’s the appeal process and what is it my old daddy used to say? “The rich get rich and the poor get children.” Anyhow, Bernie gave greedy CEOs a bad name for a few weeks there, but bad reps …