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.
No one on this board can judge. We have no idea how hard he worked.
Please, no redundancy here.
;^)
True. LOL!
I'm sure this guy got $400m instead of $398m because he outsourced and threw a lot of people out of jobs. Lets celebrate!
If you want to debate the facts, fine. Your assumptions are off base and unwarranted.
The American people are just going to love this....
so what?
In the pizza business, do you have to go half-way around the world, to some Turd World country to look for pizza's (while someone is shooting at you)?
In the pizza business, does the government tell you where you can and can't make pizzas? (as in no drilling in ANWR, off the coast of Florida, CA and many areas out west)
In the pizza business do you have to transport those pizzas in oil lines to the nearest port (while someone is shooting at you)?
In the pizza business, do you have to rent oil tankers (at about $300,000/day) to transport those pizzas half-way around the world (while someone is shooting you)?
Do you have to pay for 'insurance' on those pizzas while they are being transported half-way around the world (while someone is shooting at you)?
Do you have to pay to offload those pizzas at a refinery (ok, so no one is shooting at you anymore)?
In the pizza business, do you have to build deep-water oil platforms, oops, I meant deep-dish pizzas that cost over $1 billion dollars to build, insure, and evacuate it everytime a hurricane is forecast?
Do you have to pay to refine those pizzas to 'local blend' standards (ok, you win on this one--as sometimes anchovies are 'blended' vice sausage and pepperoni)?
In the pizza business, does drilling for dry holes (which can cost millions and millions of dollars) which occur regularly--also increase company risk? (ok, you win on this one too--as sometimes people do NOT pick up their pizzas. But I'll still match the 'dry hole' rate vs. the pizza non-pickup rate ANYDAY)
Do you again have to transport those pizzas hundreds of miles to 'pizza stations' far from those pizza refineries?
In the pizza business, do you have to make risky, long-term decisions and investments based on the constantly fluctuating daily worldwide price of pizzas?
I do like your 'coupon' idea, though. If we can just get rid of the few pesky differences (and there are many, many more) I have mentioned, maybe it just will catch on!!!
Gee what do you know. My 401K has Oil Socks in a couple of my plans. Gee my pension fund does too. Well gee whiz golly, I AM BIG OIL!
So tell you what. I will call up my nice Nigerian Banker Friend hand have him refund $.50 out of each gallon back to your bank account since that what YOU all seem to think is "Fair".
Kind of curious. When did the "Conservatives" become a bunch of Me Too Dem Lite Big Govt Socialists?
Hey, I worked at Exxonmobil. The one decision, even though we knew that the gas is combined often with others upstreams, is that we WON'T EVER buy at an Exxon or Mobil branded gas station.
That's the facts. People that worked there *HATED* it.
Well by golly, just go and make your voice heard at the next Exxon/Mobil shareholder's meeting. Give them some of your profit-reduction insight. I'm sure they'll appreciate it! I know I will. I HATE making money on stocks!
Also, when it was a Mobil company, nobody minded buying at the gas stations, and had pride in it. I came in after the merger. The difference in attitude was shocking, and very real. And justified.
You and I know why their profits are up, and it's not from outsourcing I can tell you that!
I am as fiscally conservative as the next guy, but at a time with soaring gas prices and the oil industry under attack for alleged price gouging and profiteering, this executive getting close to one half billion dollars in retirement benefits is both shameful and contemptible. It is almost like Exxon is giving a big "F You" to each one of us who use this very unique (and increasingly expensive) commodity out of necessity and not choice.
I'm more PO'd at what the airline execs make.
The solution is simple.
Everybody ought to become the chairman and CEO of Exxon.
The reporters need to storm into their editor's/publisher's office saying, "Take this stupid job and shove it where the sun don't shine."
"I'm becoming the chairman and CEO of Exxon Corp. Do you think I'm stupid? I know where the money's at."
Pride is not a consideration when I fill up my gas tank. I may be 'out there' on this one, but I look for something bizarre like the cheapest price per gallon.
Yep, this is a Big F YOU to the offshored employees and the buyers of gasoline and energy in this country.
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