Ford Scraps profit, but not CEOs high pay

This should be the title of the current news items. CEO Alan Mulally hasn't ever shown a profit for Ford and its shareholders. He has "trimmed the workforce" (read: ruined the lives of thousands of autoworkers), but he has failed to show a gain for the company. Their market share has fallen and they have lost a lot of capacity by selling off different divisions. Mulally announced today that they aren't even going to try to show profitability until AFTER 2009!

Now lets look at some numbers. Mulally's compensation in 2006 and 2007 together total $50 million. In the same period CFO Don LeClair received about $20 million, Americas division president Mark Fields $15 million, Lewis Booth, the top European-based executive $17 million, Michael Bannister, head of Ford Motor Credit Co., $12 million.

Let's use our example of luxury as defined by living at the Four Seasons Hotel and eating meals by the pool and receiving a massage every day. Price? $400,000 if you get a suite. So we trim these CFUs compensation to $500,000 each because these are tight times, right? Aren't they?

That leaves $112 million. That's over two thousand autoworkers' jobs. These are living wage jobs. People who would keep stimulating our economy. Five men make more income than two thousand of their hard working employees.

It is no wonder Japan is kicking our collective asses and they are giving big bonuses to their auto workers!

Maybe it is because the Toyota executives are still human. They haven't turned into cannibals like their American counter parts. The proof? All 32 top execs at Toyota (one of the most profitable automakers on the planet) make under $20 million combined. That includes company President Katsuaki Watanabe's compensation. That's an average of $625,000 each. They can still stay at the Four Seasons Hotel, their company is hugely successful, and they don't turn into cannibals.

No one know what its like?