All Three Candidates Want to Control CEO Pay

I would expect this kind of nonsense from Democrats, but when John McCain joins in, we're all in trouble:

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced huge pay packages for U.S. corporate chiefs on Friday in a drive to convert middle-class anger about the U.S. economy into votes.

"Some CEOs make more in one day than their workers make in one year," Obama said, jockeying for position against rival Democrat Hillary Clinton in Indiana, which votes on May 6. ...

Multimillion-dollar pay practices at the highest levels of corporate America have been an easy target for politicians as Americans reel from the mortgage and credit crises that have the U.S. economy teetering on the brink of an election-year recession.

Clinton and Republican presidential candidate John McCain have also criticized big payouts for chief executive officers who benefit hugely even when their companies are struggling.

It is none of the government's business what executives in private industry make. Period.

Corporations are not unaccountable entities. They have boards of directors, investors and shareholders who all have the ability to act if they don't like the compensation package their CEO has. It is not the job of the government to determine how much is "fair" or what multiplier of the lowest corporate salary is "appropriate". It's none of Obama, Clinton or McCain's business.
What's next? I'll bet the starting center fielder for the NY Yankees makes a lot more money than the bat boy or the secretaries in the front office. Should Congress regulate what the ballplayer makes in order to make sure it's "fair"? And what about Tiger Woods? He makes a lot more than his caddy. Perhaps the government needs to regulate how much companies can pay Woods for sponsorship and how much tournaments can pay in prize money.

Some companies have had fraud and other illegal activities which have resulted in handsome profits for their leaders, but most of those leaders are now in jail. We have a process to deal with that. Government oversight of salaries and compensation is just another step towards a government-controlled economy, and that's not good for anybody but bureaucrats.