Courtesy of Energy News and for sharing with interested posters.
It really makes some interesting readings to realise about the "Us & Them" attitudes of some of these people.
Enjoy it.
Letter to the editor
Wednesday, 27 April 2016
YESTERDAY’S Slugcatcher column has drawn a response from Clayton Utz’s Perth-based partner Peter Wiese, who said the strikes Big Oil companies have received of late against executive pay are about much more than the pay itself.
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Your article yesterday entitled The problems with paying too much for hired help deserves comment.
The strikes against executive pay are about much more than executive pay.
They are about the gap between those who, partly by virtue of their talent but always at least in large part by virtue of pure opportunity, are paid extraordinary amounts to manage companies on their shareholders' behalf, and those shareholders, and others in the "middle class", who will never see that kind of money and know it.
The latter, now empowered to do so, are at last acting against the behaviours of the former.
They see their predicament acutely in times of declining share values and effectively zero real interest rates. Their perception is exacerbated by their apprehension that increasingly they are becoming irrelevant in the face of automation and the export of their jobs.
There has been much written recently about the generational stagnation of middle-class wages in the US since the 1960s and the social consequences of that stagnation.
An article in The Atlantic Monthly this month pointed to recent surveys in the US that showed that 47% of Americans could probably not come up with $400 tomorrow to meet an unexpected expense.
The most obvious consequence of these circumstances in the US at the moment is the rise of Trump and Sanders, both of whom speak to that lost middle class, although it is probably the case that neither has a hope of delivering on his promises and, even if they could, the side effects would be intolerable. But at least they have heard the cry of pain.
What is happening in the US is coming to a place near you.
In the social context, the researchers say that the causes of the jump in the suicide rate are hopelessness and distress regarding jobs and personal finances. This is a common trend in the US, Europe and Australia.
It seems that company board members – especially those who have themselves served as very highly paid executives – and many politicians – just don't get it when it comes to the circumstances in which the non-trough dwellers find themselves.
It's not about envy; it's about day-to-day survival and the feeling of hopelessness. It's about societal fairness.
Yours sincerely
Peter Wiese
Clayton Utz
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