[jpdoctor]

> You get what you paid for applies to everything including salaries.

Hmmm. Lehman's CEO was not exactly underpaid. Nor Freddie Mac. Nor Fannie Mae. Nor GM. Nor Enron. Nor Worldcom. Nor Rich McGinn in his Lucent days.

And that's just the first people that spring to mind in 60 seconds.

[sophacles]

I'm not sure if you are being snarky or missing forrests for trees (or the other way around). It's probably a complicated multi-variable situation. If I buy a polished turd for 70% again as much as a regular turd, I stil have a turd, albeit a lovingly polished one. The one widely applicable truism is not cancelled out by another: "a fool and his money are soon parted".

Another way of looking: those places all got exactly what they paid for: someone good at manipulating a given set of rules and following strategies to the T, and who brings a fancy name to the table. Too bad they didn't also focus on the "changes behavior when the rules and the strategy don't make sense" too.

[veguss]

I'm referring to people who live on their wages and not investment income, eg: the 99%.