September 24, 2013
I’m writing in support of a strong Dodd-Frank rule 953(b).
Disclosing corporate pay ratios between CEOs and average employees will discourage the outrageous and reckless pay practices that fueled the 2008 crash.
Knowing which corporations heap riches upon their executives while squeezing struggling employees also will be a useful factor for me when considering which businesses to support with my consumer and investment dollars.
I am aware that you are under intense pressure by business interests to weaken or abandon the rule. Do not give in. Instead, weigh your duty to protect investors and the American public against the self-serving interests of those seeking to undermine this rule.
We Americans seem to be quite proud of our Capitalist society and defend Capitalism at any cost. But there are many manifestations of capitalism. The one we are currently living with seems to be what I would call Cancerous Capitalism. It has unrestrained growth that feeds off of everyone and everything around it (people and environment) at the expense of the health of the whole system (body). These unrestricted growth cells (corporate CEOs) think they are doing fine because they are getting so big, rich and powerful; but the body they are a part of is actually very sick, and when it dies or stops functioning, so will these huge growths. A healthy body, or system, should do whatever it can to cure itself from this malignant growth, but we first need to recognize that this is the disease we have.
Another type of capitalism is called Constructive Capitalism. One definition of this is "where you share the profit with the workers and the earth from which you made it!” In this system, profits are shared more equitably and everyone wins. Many companies that practice this type of capitalism ( like Dr. Bronner's Soap, for example) put a cap on the amount that the highest paid employee can earn compared to what the lowest paid regular full-time employee earns. In the case of Dr. Bronner's the cap is 5 times the amount of the lowest paid worker! Even if the cap was 10 or 100 or even 1000 times the amount of the lowest paid worker, that would be a huge difference from what we have now in many businesses. How in the world did we come to believe that anyone deserves to be paid hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars every year? I think we have just not been allowed to see how out of control this has gotten. We need transparency and accountability. We also need people and regulations that can lead us back to ethics in business, not just profit and greed.
Please support a strong Dodd-Frank rule 953(b). Thank you very much.
Thank you for considering my comment,
Anne Smith
Fairfield, CA