This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It is time to step back and witness the degree that we have reduced ourselves by countenancing the patent income inequities in our society. Case study: Countrywide Financial, the institution at the forefront of the housing crisis for making reckless, predatory loans to ill-advised individuals, compensated its chief executive officer, Angelo Mozelo, $142 million in salary for 2006 (the height of the housing bubble), making him the seventh-highest paid CEO in America.
In the midst of such obscene income disparity, we are faced with a plunging middle class and with more disturbing stories like the ones collected on the Web site of Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders (http://sanders.senate.gov). Written in plain and simple language, these accounts of ordinary Americans shed light upon everyday misery and distress.
Yes, CEOs should be generously rewarded according to the prosperity and profits they bring to their industry, but tossing them expensive bonuses and vacation plans while working-class wages see little shift is not only wrong, it is immoral.
Zain Siddiqui
Draper
