There is an old Russian fable, with different versions in other
countries, about two poor peasants, Ivan and Boris. The only difference
between them was that Boris had a goat and Ivan didn't. One day, Ivan
came upon a strange-looking lamp and, when he rubbed it, a genie
appeared. She told him that she could grant him just one wish, but it
could be anything in the world.
Ivan said, "I want Boris' goat to die."
Variations on this story in other countries suggest that this tells us something about human beings, not just Russians.
It may tell us something painful about many Americans today, when so
many people are preoccupied with the pay of corporate CEOs. It is not
that the corporate CEOs' pay affects them so much. If every oil company
executive in America agreed to work for nothing, that would not be
enough to lower the price of a gallon of gasoline by a dime. If every
General Motors executive agreed to work for nothing, that would not
lower the price of a Cadillac or a Chevrolet by one percent.
Too many people are like Ivan, who wanted Boris' goat to die.
It is not even that the average corporate CEO makes as much money as
any number of professional athletes and entertainers. The average pay
of a CEO of a corporation big enough to be included in the Standard
& Poor's index is less than one-third of what Alex Rodriguez makes,
about one-tenth of what Tiger Woods makes and less than one-thirtieth
of what Oprah Winfrey makes.
But when has anyone ever accused athletes or entertainers of "greed"?
It is not the general public that singles out corporate CEOs for so
much attention. Politicians and the media have focused on business
leaders, and the public has been led along, like sheep.
The logic is simple: Demonize those whose place or power you plan to usurp.
Politicians who want the power to micro-manage business and the economy
know that demonizing those who currently run businesses is the opening
salvo in the battle to take over their roles.
There is no way that politicians can take over the roles of Alex
Rodriguez, Tiger Woods or Oprah Winfrey. So they can make any amount of
money they want and it doesn't matter politically.
Those who want more power have known for centuries that giving the people somebody to hate and fear is the key.
In 18th century France, promoting hatred of the aristocracy was the key
to Robespierre's acquiring more dictatorial power than the aristocracy
had ever had, and using that power to create a bigger bloodbath than
anything under the old regime.
In the 20th century, it was both the czars and the capitalists in
Russia who were made the targets of public hatred by the Communists on
their road to power. That power created more havoc in the lives of more
people than czars and capitalists ever had combined.
As in other countries and other times, today it is not just a question
of which elites win out in a tug of war in America. It is the people at
large who have the most at stake.
We have just seen one of the biggest free home demonstrations of what
happens in an economy when politicians tell businesses what decisions
to make.
For years, using the powers of the Community Reinvestment Act and other
regulatory powers, along with threats of legal action if the loan
approval rates varied from the population profile, politicians have
pressured banks and other lending institutions into lending to people
they would not lend to otherwise.
Yet, when all this blows up in our faces and the economy turns down,
what is the answer? To have more economic decisions made by
politicians, because they choose to say that "deregulation" is the
cause of our problems.
Regardless of how much suffocating regulation may have been responsible
for an economic debacle, politicians have learned that they can get
away with it if they call it "deregulation."
No matter what happens, for politicians it is "heads I win and tails
you lose." If we keep listening to the politicians and their media
allies, we are all going to keep losing, big time. Keeping our
attention focused on CEO pay-- Boris' goat-- is all part of this game.
We are all goats if we fall for it.
