Corporate Greed in America

The Issue: Corporate Greed in America

The Facts:

$ While the average worker in America makes $25 thousand per year, the average CEO salary is $14 million and climbing.

$ These same, overpriced CEOs have shifted millions of American jobs overseas, where child labor, worker coercion and slave wages are the rule.

$ Due to tax cuts Republicans have doled out to their Big Business friends, corporate tax receipts are now only 7.4% of overall federal revenue.

$ In 2002, the CEOs of the 50 U.S. companies that laid off the most workers got an average pay raise of 44%.

$ In 2002, CEOs for the 30 companies with the biggest shortfalls in employee pension funds were paid 59% more than CEOs at other companies.


What Republicans Claim:

$ They say that agencies like the Securities & Exchange Commission should be controlled by the same corporations they are supposed to be regulating.

$ They say that taking huge “campaign contributions” and then writing laws that benefit those same “contributors” isn’t really legalized bribery.

The Truth Of The Matter:

$ Corporate compensation for all executives must be reported as a separate item in all financial statements.

$ Even though shipping jobs to countries with low wages is good for CEO stock options and bonuses, it’s bad for America and just plain wrong.

$ Corporate campaign contributions must be reined in and regulated.

Fun Facts To Know And Tell:

$ Until Enron went bankrupt and Ken Lay’s crimes were exposed in the media, Mr. Lay was extremely influential with the current administration.

$ Bush’s pet name for Ken Lay was “Kenny Boy!”