Paychecks, Morality, Art and Government

America now has a Pay Czar. It seems that some rather large financial institutions have a man who now tells them how much they can pay some of their executives because they failed at some task or another. I am going to have to disagree with this concept.

Where do we draw the line on this concept? The Pittsburgh Pirates have not made it into the playoffs in 17 years but every member of their team is guaranteed a League Minimum Salary. Four members of their team earn more than two million dollars a year. Between their 26 players they spend over $25 million a year. That is a heck of a lot of cash to represent America’s 56th largest city so poorly.

There are a number of actors who I have enjoyed the work of only to be disappointed in some effort or another of theirs. I have enjoyed quite a few Brad Pitt movies. I enjoyed the movie Troy. In the movie Troy Brad Stunk up the screen the entire time. Tyler Durden may have been iconic and changed the way a generation of men viewed their place in the world but given what could be arguably better material, certainly material that has withstood a long test of time, Mr. Pitt delivered a performance that made me wish I was watching a 3rd grade Easter play. Is the Fed ready to cut his salary?

What is my government willing to do about moments of erectile dysfunction on porn sets? The poorly waxed alley I tried to bowl on last month? How about that craptastic burger I got from Wendy’s last week? Why do so many people in our country fail so spectacularly and evade the Sauron-like eye of our Pay Czar but somehow the folks doing an amazingly difficult job where they cannot control the circumstances of the market face retribution?

What we have on Wall Street is not a pay problem. We don’t have an incompetence problem either. What we have is a morality problem. Don’t we all know that you “Cannot legislate morality?” Do we? I have to disagree there. Legislation is a broad agreement on morality. Killing and stealing are widely, nearly universally, agreed to be immoral and we legislate that.

My biggest problem with art school was that the entire purpose of the institution was to create self-employed small business people and we were never prepared to run a small business. I have since become a strong component of most, if not all, majors being bound to have some kind of business training. Why can we not institute the same principles towards those who study business? How about a few classes on morality for America’s business people in training? A solid foundation in philosophy coupled with an agreement between employer and employee about the appropriateness of their financial decision would go much further in solving our current crisis than any pay strictures our government can provide.