Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Reminiscing and Reading

My sister and Uncle Quentin, 1946. My Aunt and Uncle brought my sister from Florida to Minneapolis by way of Chicago. She stayed with them while our pregnant Mother and I went to Los Angeles. We were reunited after our brother was born, about six months later. My sister at Aunt and Uncle's home - bathing alfresco.
This is my sister's (on the right) second birthday party. I’ve just finished reading Predictably Irrational, subtitled The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. It was a little disappointing in that I really didn’t learn too much from it; perhaps my expectations were too high.

One part I did enjoy was reading the author’s take on why CEO pay is so high. In 1993 federal securities regulators forced companies to make known the pay and perks their top executives received. The thinking was that once this became public, boards would be reluctant to give outrageous salaries and bonuses. In 1976 the average CEO was paid 36 times what the average worker received and by 1993 the pay was 131 times as much. But here’s what happened: Once this was public, the media started ranking CEO’s by pay, CEO’s compared their pay to others and the end result is that now the average CEO makes about 369 times as much as the average worker – about three times the salary before the compensation went public. So much for good intentions!

Today DD learned how to parallel park the bus! This isn’t anything a driver will ever have to do but the powers-that-be want to make sure they know how. I’m not the least bit mechanical and am in awe of all she’s learned so far.

3 comments:

Mom said...

I would guess DD's bus is a lot easier to drive than the one pictured here. I love the bathing beauty picture.

rosemary said...

Good for DD, curb hit or not. I drove our RV once....that was enough for Steve and me too. I have some old pic posts written, I'll have to get back into the groove again. As for CEO $....my daughter works for WaMu and her branch will close on the 15th. She and thousands of other folks supporting a family with get a small good bye "bonus" while the frosting made sure they get their full bonus.

Sandy said...

I have never even attempted to drive our motor home - husband says I should know how in case of an emergency but I always tell him if I REALLY had to I could but I'm not so sure.

Daughter says the bus is pretty easy to drive - the hardest part is remembering everything you need to do on your route. And making right turns!

WaMu stock has taken a beating but those at the top always seem to make out okay. This economy is rough on so many - whether it's the "R" word or not.