Sociopathic Paychecks

by digby

Howie wrote a great post about CEO pay yesterday, in anticipation of a piece about the new wave of “run government like a business” candidates from the right (despite what should be populist revulsion at the mere mention of such a thing) represented by Galtian saviors such as Romney, Fiorina and Whitman. Noting the oddness of any market that couldn’t find enough talented people to undercut the salaries of the people who demand hundred million dollar salaries (you couldn’t find anyone in the whole world who wouldn’t do it for say 50 million?) his post features a very intriguing theory from Toys, War, and Faith: Democracy In Jeopardy by Maj. William C. Gladish. He posits that these jobs are actually much more difficult to fill than you might think, but not because they require such superior talent and dedication, but because they require that and something else which is much more rare:

“There’s another and more demanding requirement to meet. They must be willing to operate in a runaway economic and financial system that demands the exploitation of humanity and the environment for short-term gain. This is a disturbing contradiction to their children’s interests and their own intelligence, education, cultural appreciation, and religious beliefs.

It’s this second requirement that drastically reduces the number of quality candidates [for corporations] to pick from. Most people in this group are not willing to forsake God, family, and humanity to further corporate interest in a predatory financial system. For the small percentage of people left, the system continues to increase salaries and benefit packages to entice the most qualified and ruthless to detach themselves from humanity and become corporate executives and their hired guns.

There’s lots more at the link on what Gladdis calls “sociopathic paychecks.” And sociopath is an important word, because it’s really what’s required to fully understand what makes these people able to operate without conscience while believing themselves to be “doing God’s work.“

Howie offered this up as a useful primer:

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