[GordonS]

Shares can easily be exchanged for money.

Paying execs huge bonuses (whether in cash, gold, shares or whatever), while taking huge sums in state aid and laying off thousands of employees is morally despicable behaviour at best.

[kgantchev]

It does matter what they got paid in. If they got paid in anything other than shares, I would agree. But the point of shares is that it aligns the economic incentives for the executives and the company. Shares are directly dependent on the economic success of the company. And the ability to employ people and pay them salaries is also directly dependent on the economic success of the company.

If they sell shares and pay employees, then they're not helping the long-term sustainability of the company and its ability to continue hiring people and paying them.