A Final Note on Economic Justice ‘‘Economic justice,’’ inevitably a contested concept, should be mentioned only because wide disparities of income surely feel, to a worker, like any other of the ‘‘disparate results’’ mentioned by the Supreme Court in some of the racial discrimination cases. A while ago, for instance, Philip Purcell, then the top executive of Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter Discover, cashed in on stock options worth $36.4 million in the 12 months ended November 30, 1997. That was in addition to $14.4 million in salary, bonuses and restricted stock. Graef Crystal, a ‘‘compensation expert’’ from San Diego, pointed out that Purcell ‘‘could have taken an additional $43.2 million of exercisable options, but he chose not to. That would have given him $94 million. That’s a staggering amount.’’15 Yes. If workers of all races should be treated equally, should all levels of workers be treated equally? Is there some rule of proportionality that would say what relation the highest salary in the company should bear to the lowest, or what sacrifices the top ranking executives should be prepared to make before serious layoffs begin? At the outset, there is no real evidence that CEO salaries are related to shareholder wealth—recall that while corporate profits fell 4.2 % in 1989, for instance, CEO salaries went up 8 %. And when CEO bonuses are pegged to increase in the price of the stock, the result can be considerably worse for the employee: the quickest way to boost the price of the stock is to ‘‘downsize’’ the company, laying off labor, the highest of the cost factors, while the income still rolls in. With the ratio of income to cost radically changed, the profit soars, the quarterly report looks terrific, the stock leaps upward, and the CEO may find himself dandling a bonus in the tens of millions. (The knowledgeable investors depart at that point, it may be noted.) Surely this must be unjust? But there is nothing in that scenario that is illegal, and everything in it that increases the wealth of the shareholders—the first responsibility of the CEO. This question will remain to be addressed in the future. pa explain naman po kung ano insights niyo.
