Whoever Said Life Was Fair?

The next time you’re worried about how much some CEO makes or find yourself thinking that oil executives make too much…consider the following (a big thank you to Thomas Sowell for continuing to spread the truth):

If every oil executive in America agreed to work for nothing, it would not affect the price of a gallon of gasoline even a dime.

If all of GM’s executives agreed to work for nothing, it would not lower the price of a Chevrolet by even one percent.

Why do we hate CEOs so much? Why don’t we hate Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods as much? The average pay of a CEO of a Standard & Poor’s listed corporation is about one-tenth of Tiger Woods’ salary and about one-thirtieth (1/30th) of Oprah Winfrey’s salary. Why is the CEO demonized while Tiger and Oprah are idolized?

Thomas Sowell repeats a story about two poor peasants who are the same differing only in that that one peasant owns a goat. When the other peasant happens upon a magic-lamp and is confronted by a genie, his wish is that the other peasant’s goat would die.

Why are we so preoccupied with what others have as opposed to going out to get what we want for ourselves? Why do we think the root of our problems lie in what others have?

Consider that after the take-over of Russia by the Communists, who overthrew the czars and capitalists, life for the average Russian became infinitely worse and more nightmarish than anything they had ever experienced under the czars.

The Communists worked to demonize the czars and capitalists in order to put themselves into power and then made things markedly worse. Who is it that is demonizing those that are successful in this country, telling us that our problem is income inequality - that some people are just making too much and thereby hurting our chances to succeed; or that some other such unfairness is the reason we are not making it?

Isn’t it time to stop and think about what is going on and who’s fooling who?