Generally speaking CEOs in the USA are vastly overpaid even though they typically destroy shareholder and employee value.
They play the game to create market volatility so their options will make them money, even though the shareholders are shaken out and underwater. They are basically PR politicians that provide little tangible value, while they demand their compensation and benefits be nailed down in such a way as to make all the union members that we criticize envious. Why do CEOs and entertainers get a contract? Why don’t they either do their job competently or be fired without contract? Shareholders would be willing to pay them or fire them and they should be unprotected. But they keep such decisions with their cronies, and the shareholders never have such input.
Fiorina was such a CEO. She worked to destroy Lucent and walked away with a gold mine. Meg is another who got her fortune only because she was put into the CEO position before eBay went public. IMHO these are two overpaid corporate titans that represent the problem, not the solution.
*sigh* Thanks for the warning :(