Posted on 04/14/2006 1:20:10 PM PDT by aShepard
April 14, 2006— Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.
Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.
"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified.
Raymond, however, was confronted with caustic complaints about his compensation.
"In 2004, Mr. Raymond, your bonus was over $3.6 million," Sen. Barbara Boxer said.
That was before new corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed Raymond's retirement deal and his $51.1 million paycheck in 2005. That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. It's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.
"I think it will spark a lot of outrage," said Sarah Anderson, a fellow in the global economy program at the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think tank. "Clearly much of his high-level pay is due to the high price of gas."
Exxon defends Raymond's compensation, pointing out that during the 12 years he ran the company, Exxon became the largest oil company in the world and that the stock price went up 500 percent.
A company spokesman said the compensation package reflected "a very long and distinguished career."
Some Exxon shareholders are now trying to pass resolutions criticizing the company's executive pay policies. The company is urging other shareholders to vote against those resolutions.
Then start your own oil company, and sell gas at the price you think is fair.
He is a good-valued, hard-working citizen who is responsible for a vital national resource.
When most people mess up at their jobs, that does not cause an economic, political, or even military disaster to happen. When the chairman of Exxon screws up - all of those things may happen.
Exxon does.
"Do people really believe the job he is doing is worth that kind of money?"
Exxon does.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1614495/replies?c=2
Read my comment from a couple of days ago, and the sort of replies I got.
I have lost all faith in non-elitist leadership; I didn't even try to debate these people. They are not only not conservatives, they are crypto-communists too.
It is not out of necessity. You have simply taken your lifestyle for granted and lack the vision of a world without gas at the price you want.
Our great-grand parents are laughing at us, thinking there is no way to cope without cars, or that we are victims of a plutocracy by virtue of gasoline prices vs. executive compensation.
Can you support this accusation in some manner beyond your mere feelings and emotion?
$400 mil... I'm jealous too, but there is no evidence of sleaze or wrongdoing.
Perhaps YOU owe THEM competition...
No? Of course not. Nor do they owe anything to you.
Yet men of steel have done just that. Now rightly rewarded, the Bolsheviks have come for Anastasia.
"Now all we need on this thread is someone coming in and claiming it's all a big conspiracy, and it'll be exactly like all the deep-thinking political discussions my elders had in the '70s."
No no, it's not the governemnt -- it's Jewish bankers, right.... </s>
Surely a janitor works harder than many, but when a janitor fails at his or her job - the company will not crumble, and nations won't perish for it.
That is the burden of managing Exxon, a steep one that explains such compensation as $400 million.
"Then start your own oil company, and sell gas at the price you think is fair."
Or buy one like the Russians did when they bought Getty - actually Lukoil now. The Russians are making lots of profit now as are the Moslems - they're getting ready to hamfist the world.
Why is there no alternative to petrochemicals so I don't have to subsidize the annhialation of western civilization?
All reasons not to buy their gas, if you believe any of that is true.
None of that is cause for WHINING that $400 is too much money, and so government should step in and control things.
You open your own pocket. Nobody forces you.
"When the economy is in the toilet and people have to make a choice between gas and bread on the table you can alays say it happened because its the capitalist American way."
Nobody owes gas or bread to you at any price, high or low... but I am sure people will blame the rich, the Jews, their parents, the voices in their heads someday when their own foolish expectations are the root of the problem. So make a decision between gas and no gas today, not later.
Failed what -- to give you a product you thought you were entitled to, at a price that you like?
What were you doing while others risked their blood and necks to build an oil empire, and sometimes paid the price for that effort? You likely worked a job, proudly earning a paycheck of proportional importance to the managing of Exxon.
I am sure there is a homeless guy somewhere who believes 'the free market has failed', due only to the fact that you earned $40k or whatever and he didn't.
They can. Men did.
You won't.
State of Massachusetts recently paid $55 million to fix a buckling wall at UMass Memorial Hospital. All they did was replace the ugly face with a shiny, attractive limestone finish.
The issue is not simply that they used tax money to do this, but ..... (ready?) they used MEDICAID to pay for it!!! Here is the article:
That's about 1/7 of what Exxon paid out.... to fix one stupid wall at a hospital.
Simple man, simple "solution."
And you wish to impose this view on Exxon.... how?
It makes perfect sense. Transportation is directly related to the price, as is the local activity of where it is sold. It would make LESS sense if the prices were any different between 2 proximal stations.
Your main complaint seems to be not a matter of any principle, but that you don't want to pay for what you take from people.
If the system were overtly corrupt, you would not be raising these objections (ie- moaning), so long as you indulged at the low cost you were paying without the same hardship to your pocketbook.
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