Yesterday Jim Kuhnhenn opted a story:  “Obama to detail compensation limits on executives”

In summary – Call it the maximum wage if you will. President Barack Obama wants to impose a $500,000 pay cap on executives whose firms receive government financial rescue funds.  This would be a dramatic intervention into corporate governance in the midst of financial crisis.

The new restrictions, described by an administration official familiar with the new rules, are to be announced Wednesday morning at the White House. The steps set the stage for the administration’s unveiling next week of a new framework for spending the money that remains in the $700 billion financial rescue fund.

“If the taxpayers are helping you, then you’ve got certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog,” President Barack Obama

Okay.  I can buy that.  If executives are on watch at companies that demonstrate fiscal negligence and lay-off six thousand people (average salary of $42,000), they need to be accountable, and feel some pain too.

But, the real story here needs to be government compensation.  The average pay for a member of the House and Senate is $174,000. They get the same health benefits as the President of the United States.

When these bodies were originally formed the idea was for them to earn a wage that averaged the incomes of their constituents. Their benefits would follow.  This way they understood the needs of the people; would be in-sync with them; and, would be more incentivized to focus on their needs.

I want leadership that sets an example in both business and government.

This is both Jeffersonian in it’s ideal, and Randian (“Objectivism”) /1 in it’s application.

Peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

Brian Patrick Cork

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1/ Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.