These incredible increases cannot be accounted for simply with the charge of corporate greed or overpaid CEOs. Instead, we must accept the fact that in the United States affluence itself is on the rise. The income gap between rich and poor in the United States may well be increasing, but this is in large part due to the swelling ranks of the rich and well to do. More people than ever before are acquiring wealth at faster and faster rates, though admittedly few quite as fast as the CEOs of major U.S. corporations. We can thank the effects of technological capitalism and its relatively wide embrace in the United States for this expansion of affluence. Poverty in the United States, accordingly, is increasingly defined only in relative not absolute terms. The extreme wealth of the growing class of the superrich in the United States -- CEOs included -- has had the net effect of filtering down through the strata of society to affect individuals at all levels. Today's excesses of society's elite become a part of the lives of average Americans tomorrow. For example, twenty years ago the cellular phone was exorbitant excess used only by the extremely wealthy. Today, it is so ubiquitous as to be unusual when it is not used (D'Souza 57).

In sum total, claims that CEOs are overpaid are misleading. It is certainly true that some CEOs may be overpaid for the work that they do. It is difficult to justify an extreme salary for an incompetent CEO. However, as a whole, any moral challenge to the right of a CEO to receive high compensation for his or her work must also be leveled at the growing body of American citizens who are also enhancing their affluence and increasing the extent of their wealth. It is counterproductive to the task of improving the quality of life for all Americans that...

To do so implies that any individual or group should not be allowed to do the same. If critics of high CEO pay conclude that it is immoral to pay them so much, then they must also conclude that it is immoral for affluence in general to increase.
Corporate greed and CEO salaries strike a strong chord with the average American, largely because the rate of compensation those individuals receive for their work is so much greater than what the average worker could ever hope to earn. Indignation and a fair amount of envy are to be expected. But significant increases in CEO salaries in the last twenty years are indicative of a larger trend in the United States towards greater wealth and affluence that has affected individuals from all walks of life. The quality of life for the average American has improved significantly and noticeably over the same time period even if it hasn't been at the same phenomenal rate that has occurred for CEOs. The CEOs are simply at the forefront of a new trend in greater affluence in the United States one that should not be curbed in the interest of "making things fair." Rather, misguided morality will only get in the way of improving the improvements in quality of life and affluence that have been occurring for the nation as a whole. The high pay for CEOs is simply part of a trend of enhanced wealth building for all Americans.

Works Cited

Brush, Michael. "Is a CEO Worth 364 Times the Average Joe?" MSN Money. 5 Sept. 2007. 28 Sept. 2007 http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/IsACEOWorth364TimesAnAverageJoe.aspx?page=all.

D'Souza, Dinesh. "They Deserve Every Penny." CEO Magazine (Feb. 2002): 55-58.