The Australian Financial Review occasionally wears the reputation of being a paper for people with names like Plutus P Moneyfellows, who wouldn’t feed what your family eats at Christmas to the hounds on their estate, who are so infuriated by the thought of baristas getting weekend penalty rates that their top hat simply flies off their head, landing in the caviar holder and comically splattering their dinner guests. There are days when this seems unfair. And then there are days like yesterday:
While Australia struggles with a cost of living crisis, as housing and childcare services slip from the grasp of normal people, support services are maxed out and supermarkets brace for increased shoplifting of basic food items, the AFR snorted the headline “Why CEOs should be paid more” into the back of its throat and hocked it into readers’ faces.
Perhaps feeling that the bandaid was off, that same day the paper also announced it was launching “Australia’s first prestige watch fair”. Finally, a chance for people who somehow unaccountably sleep at night to spend the equivalent of a house deposit on something that tells you what time it is, and a chance to remind Australia that the Fin not only has a watch editor, but his name is Bani McSpedden and he’s of the view that such an event was not just necessary, but overdue.
It called to mind a few of the paper’s other greatest hits:
- Former New South Wales housing minister Pru Goward using the organ to share her views on “harnessing” the poor, citing non-specific “social workers” who “despair” at the working class’ “appalling housework, neglect of their children and, notably, their sharp and unrepentant manner when told to lift their game”. Notably.
- James P Gorman, the Australian head of Morgan Stanley, telling the gathered luminaries at the Fin‘s business summit in Sydney to “get greedy when everybody else is scared … Right now, everybody’s scared — there are opportunities”, while outside, the city flooded.
- The piece marvelling at all the “new skills” CEOs were mastering, thanks to the COVID-19 lockdowns, including mowing the lawn.
- And the last time it argued (in an editorial) that CEOs deserve huge pay rises because they were so good for Australia. Bonus points for relying on PwC as an authority.
Errr, they already do ? What CEO has a salary package without a significant component tied to profits, share price, or similar ?
Here’s a revolutionary idea: how about rewarding the actual workers creating all that value based on it ?
Again, the FIN rightly believes that the only people worth considering as truly human are the Wealthy. All others are little more than cattle and should be treated as such; milked for all they can provide, butchered when they’re at their peak, and occasionally baited by dogs when their betters need some amusement.
sounds like the yesmen.org
If the CEO fell from a window at great height would anyone in the company really notice the absence?
Broken glass?
Probably only by demanding that the council clean up the mess on the pavement.
Speaking of awkwardness in publications, did anyone else notice the two full page ads in last weekend’s Saturday Paper? They were for Omega watches that can operate at a depth in the ocean of up to 6 kms. Oh dear, I thought, not good timing.
At long last, this is what the nation has been lacking. Prior to now how could a powerful CEO determine which watch should grace their fat cat wrist? This feature by the AFR is a boon to society, industry & productivity. Having the perfect brand & model watch will assist CEOs to be punctual for their board meetings, golf dates, club luncheons, yacht launches & endless junkets. No wonder the country is in danger of a recession, for years we have badly needed a watch fair…thank you AFR!