Yes, it’s a real article.  It set me to thinking.  When you see that kind of a headline, what’s the first thought that comes to your mind?

Is it: Wow, cool!  I wonder how they got to make that much money?  I wonder what they had to do for their company to get that kind of salary?  What company has that much compensation variation?  I wonder what I would have to do to become a CEO?  Maybe I should try to get my foot in the door at that company so I can rise to be the CEO someday.

Or, is it:  That is totally insane!  That CEO is being paid WAY too much money, if he earns 320 times the average worker at his company!  He must be stealing that money from workers  lower down the totem pole than he is.  He must have cheated to make it so high in that company!  That company must be really keeping those other workers down, and favoring the executives.  That firm must have rules that make it harder for the average guy to get a higher salary there.

So, are you like the conservative, who sees that headline as a motivator, who tries to find out how those CEOs rose so high, and earned so much at their company, so he can emulate them?  Who thinks that, if CEO X can do it, so can I!

Or are you like the typical Leftist, whose first thought is how to bring that over-paid CEO’s salary closer to the average worker.  And devises ways to take away the CEO’s huge salary, by increasing taxation on the higher-earners, and lobbying for higher minimum wages so the lower-earners make more without earning more.

Leftists don’t want to give the workers at the bottom a hand up, so they can climb the corporate ladder, and earn a better job at a higher salary.  Their first thought is to bring down those at the top, which benefits exactly no one.  That guy at the bottom benefits not one bit from the CEO earning less, and may actually be harmed, if that excellent CEO takes another job where he can earn what he is really worth.

Think about it.  What would you say to that headline?