Credit Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe for not only commenting on the widely reported Executive Excess 2006 (full 60-page pdf here) but also comparing its findings on war-related CEO compensation with what our soldiers are paid.
As soldiers have died in displaying personal patriotism, the pay gap between soldiers and defense CEOs has exploded. Before 9/11, the gap between CEOs of publicly traded companies and army privates was already a galling 190 to 1. Today, it is 308 to 1. The average army private makes $25,000 a year. The average defense CEO makes $7.7 million.
``Did this surprise us? No, because we've been watching since Sept. 11," said Betsy Leondar-Wright, communications director for United for a Fair Economy. ``While the rest of us were worrying about terrorism and mourning the people who died, the CEOs were maneuvering their companies to take advantage of fear and changing oil supply, not just for competition but for personal enrichment."
(Note: Fellow HuffPoster Charlie Cray has more on war profiteers.)
Meanwhile, those poorly paid soldiers are being targeted by "predatory lending [that] undermines military readiness, harms the morale of troops and their families, and adds to the cost of fielding an all volunteer fighting force," according to a Pentagon study (full 92-page pdf here) released on August 9 and only now getting widespread media attention following an excellent special report in USA Today.
As many as one in five members of the armed services are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases that can charge cash-strapped military families interest of 400% or more....
"We're seeing a growing trend of folks who are not eligible to deploy because of financial problems," says Capt. Mark Patton, commander of Naval Base Point Loma in California. Patton says debt problems can cost some servicemembers their security clearances.....
Lenders typically charge $15 to $25 per $100 loan for two weeks, and most loans are extended for several weeks. The report says the average loan is $350 and has an annual interest rate of 390% to 780%. The average borrower, it says, pays back $834 for a $339 loan.
Now, I'm not trying to claim any direct causal relationship between war profiteers' windfalls and warriors' financial woes, but I would think there's a news hook in there somewhere. I also note that the unabashedly partisan "Executive Excess" report got ample play upon its release (oh, how the media love to report on rich people, never more so than when they're misbehaving) but for weeks there was only spotty coverage of the plight of service members caught in predatory loans. I guess poor people aren't the target demographic.