Trickle-Down Economy? How About Cascade-Up?

Marx was right: If youre a capitalist business executive, you simply cant be too rich. The gap between the earnings of the corporate pooh-bahs and their blue-collar minions has ballooned over the last 20 years from a 42-to-1 ratio in 1980 to a 410-to-1 ratio last year and it keeps getting wider, according to a new study released Monday by two pro-labor think tanks. "A Decade of Executive Excess" reports that the average income of a corporate CEO increased fivefold since 1990 and last year alone the figure rose 36 percent, compared with a 2.7 percent increase in the average blue-collar wage. If youre slaving away for the median employees annual income of $29,267, then the fact that Disney CEO Michael Eisner was paid $576 million last year is bound to get you whistling a Woody Guthrie tune. Never mind if youre in the developing world and have have to swallow the fact that the combined worth of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Paul Allen ($156 billion) is greater than the combined GNP of the worlds 43 poorest countries.

Of course, much of the ballooning income gap is a product of compensation packages based on stock options translated into improbable wealth by the dizzy Dow, which could always tank and provide a dose of schadenfreude to those mired in class resentment. But no amount of carping by labor over the widening chasm between the earnings of the fat cats and the paycheck of the working stiff is likely to change the equation. Shaming the wealthy may be a longstanding pastime in Europe, but nobody apologizes for being rich in America.