I know this question seems odd in a real estate blog, but with the recent chatter about the bailout bill and irresponsibility on Wall Street, this question came up tonight as I watched one of CNBC's nighttime market shows.  They were talking about CEO compensation and how unwarranted it is when the company is mismanaged.  Furthermore the Democrats have made this an issue to incite class warfare within the voting populous.

But let's compare apples to oranges. Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat (NBA BASKETBALL TEAM) made over 14 million dollars last season.  His team was horrible, they won only 15 of 82 NBA games, and had the worst record in the entire NBA.  So if we're evaluating salary's based on performance, shouldn't Dwayne Wade refund some of his salary back to the Miami Heat fans?  It's not as ridiculous a question as it may seem.  Isn't the current government bailout asking banks to do the same thing to their employees.

The answer is that no one is going to require Dwayne Wade to return that money.  Furthermore, the stock holders at these major companies have entirely in their rights the ability to take back compensation, fire, or reduce a CEO's bonuses.  The reality is that the stockholder is affected much more then "joe public", and in reality the CEO works for the stockholder.  Therefore the stockholder has ultimate say in terms of what a CEO should get in terms of compensation.  One complaint I heard repeatedly  is that some of these CEO's worked three or four weeks a year but received huge salary's.  The cold hard facts are that some people are more productive in four weeks then others who spend 120 hours a week on the job.  These top flight executives should not always be classified in the same light as well.  There are plenty of over achieving executives that spend their entire life at the office as well.

What is typical in these troubling times, is that Americans are looking for a scapegoat, when the goat is staring them in the face.  We all contributed to this mess, and it's going to take all of collectively to rebuild America once again.  I for one am happy that these sports figures are compensated for their amazing talents and I do not for one second wish that they were paid less.  The reality is that the Miami heat will make changes to their organization, and Dwayne Wade is an important part of their future success.  The fact is that Dwayne wouldn't be recieving 14 million if he hadn't earned it in the past.  Most of these CEO's didn't get there because they were idiots either.