CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As the economic collapse broadens, many issues arise. Most tangible are layoffs. More than 1.3 million people in the United States lost jobs in 2008, and another 235,000 in January 2009.

The major justification for layoffs is to protect the profit margins of the corporations. Recently the pay scale of corporate executives came into focus when President Obama threatened a $500,000 cap for CEOs of banks receiving taxpayer bailout money. For average workers, $500,000 as punishment is hard to grasp. CEO pay scale has become as difficult to comprehend as it is to control. In order to grasp the pay scales, imagine that CEOs actually work 48 weeks, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, as their employees do, and break it down.

At $15.2 million a year, the average CEO earns $312,500 a week. If this CEO went without one week of salary, the company could pay 20 employees $15,000 each for another year.

More affluent CEOs such as Stanley O'Neil, who left Merrill Lynch before Bank of America took it over, earned $44.4 million in salary and $66.5 million in severance pay. At $113 million in 2008, Mr. O'Neil received $500,000 per day. If he gave up one week of pay, Merrill Lynch could retain 50 employees at $50,000 each for another year or 166 minimum-wage workers.

The managers of the top 50 hedge funds and private equity firms averaged $588 million each in salary, benefits and bonuses for 2007 (as reported by the Institute for Policy Studies). This averages to $12 million a week or $300,000 an hour! If these CEOs went without one week of compensation, their companies could retain 240 workers at $50,000 each or 800 employees at minimum wage for another year.

These obscene pay scale discrepancies represent only the tip of a demonic iceberg of corporate practices that threaten the health of our economy, our democracy, our communities and our environment. Profit margin as the sole measure of success has created a climate of corporate irresponsibility in which pollution, outsourcing, cutting employee benefits and layoffs are the norm.

The financial ruin of our nation requires a frank discussion on the relationship between capitalism and democracy. President Obama recently stated, "This is America. We don't disparage wealth. We don't begrudge anybody for achieving success and we believe that success should be rewarded, but what gets people upset - and rightfully so - are executives being rewarded for failure - especially when these rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers." We now have a president who understands that "trickle-down economics" is a myth. He speaks for the thousands of proud, American workers who are now suffering the fear and indignity of not knowing how they will keep their homes and provide food for their families.

Corporate lobbyists control public policy and deregulation abounds. Wall Street execs set Treasury policy, Enron controls energy policy, pharmaceutical giants mandate drug safety, military contractors usurp massive increases each year for outdated and unnecessary weapons, and human needs go unmet.  Democracy functions only when masses of people participate and refuse to be governed by the elite.

Perhaps as the number of jobless Americans increases, so will their voices. Hard battles have been fought in Congress to secure a minimum living wage and limits on forced overtime. The time has come to address pay scale at the opposite spectrum. California Rep. Barbara Lee has introduced legislation to cap the CEO salary and benefits that corporations are allowed to deduct from their income taxes at 25 times the salary of their lowest paid employee. The corporation can still choose to pay out vast sums to CEOs, just not at taxpayers' expense. This kind of control over capitalism will serve to strengthen, not weaken, our democracy.

Beneath our financial ruin lie moral issues. Beneath the dilemmas of right and wrong and what is punishable by law, there lies a sickness This singular focus on profit represents an insatiable hunger, a pitiful insecurity embodied in the desperate need for more: more wealth, more status, more power.

As the great sages and the average citizens know, material wealth protects no one from death. All we really have is how we live our lives, how we share and how we care. At this juncture the average workers represent not only our nation's economic engine but also a class of people who can lead by example ... who share and care and don't give up.

Now they need to speak up.

Mareneck, of Sweet Springs, is a member of Greenbrier Valley Citizens for Change.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As the economic collapse broadens, many issues arise. Most tangible are layoffs. More than 1.3 million people in the United States lost jobs in 2008, and another 235,000 in January 2009.

The major justification for layoffs is to protect the profit margins of the corporations. Recently the pay scale of corporate executives came into focus when President Obama threatened a $500,000 cap for CEOs of banks receiving taxpayer bailout money. For average workers, $500,000 as punishment is hard to grasp. CEO pay scale has become as difficult to comprehend as it is to control. In order to grasp the pay scales, imagine that CEOs actually work 48 weeks, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, as their employees do, and break it down.

At $15.2 million a year, the average CEO earns $312,500 a week. If this CEO went without one week of salary, the company could pay 20 employees $15,000 each for another year.

More affluent CEOs such as Stanley O'Neil, who left Merrill Lynch before Bank of America took it over, earned $44.4 million in salary and $66.5 million in severance pay. At $113 million in 2008, Mr. O'Neil received $500,000 per day. If he gave up one week of pay, Merrill Lynch could retain 50 employees at $50,000 each for another year or 166 minimum-wage workers.

The managers of the top 50 hedge funds and private equity firms averaged $588 million each in salary, benefits and bonuses for 2007 (as reported by the Institute for Policy Studies). This averages to $12 million a week or $300,000 an hour! If these CEOs went without one week of compensation, their companies could retain 240 workers at $50,000 each or 800 employees at minimum wage for another year.

These obscene pay scale discrepancies represent only the tip of a demonic iceberg of corporate practices that threaten the health of our economy, our democracy, our communities and our environment. Profit margin as the sole measure of success has created a climate of corporate irresponsibility in which pollution, outsourcing, cutting employee benefits and layoffs are the norm.

The financial ruin of our nation requires a frank discussion on the relationship between capitalism and democracy. President Obama recently stated, "This is America. We don't disparage wealth. We don't begrudge anybody for achieving success and we believe that success should be rewarded, but what gets people upset - and rightfully so - are executives being rewarded for failure - especially when these rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers." We now have a president who understands that "trickle-down economics" is a myth. He speaks for the thousands of proud, American workers who are now suffering the fear and indignity of not knowing how they will keep their homes and provide food for their families.

Corporate lobbyists control public policy and deregulation abounds. Wall Street execs set Treasury policy, Enron controls energy policy, pharmaceutical giants mandate drug safety, military contractors usurp massive increases each year for outdated and unnecessary weapons, and human needs go unmet.  Democracy functions only when masses of people participate and refuse to be governed by the elite.

Perhaps as the number of jobless Americans increases, so will their voices. Hard battles have been fought in Congress to secure a minimum living wage and limits on forced overtime. The time has come to address pay scale at the opposite spectrum. California Rep. Barbara Lee has introduced legislation to cap the CEO salary and benefits that corporations are allowed to deduct from their income taxes at 25 times the salary of their lowest paid employee. The corporation can still choose to pay out vast sums to CEOs, just not at taxpayers' expense. This kind of control over capitalism will serve to strengthen, not weaken, our democracy.

Beneath our financial ruin lie moral issues. Beneath the dilemmas of right and wrong and what is punishable by law, there lies a sickness This singular focus on profit represents an insatiable hunger, a pitiful insecurity embodied in the desperate need for more: more wealth, more status, more power.

As the great sages and the average citizens know, material wealth protects no one from death. All we really have is how we live our lives, how we share and how we care. At this juncture the average workers represent not only our nation's economic engine but also a class of people who can lead by example ... who share and care and don't give up.

Now they need to speak up.

Mareneck, of Sweet Springs, is a member of Greenbrier Valley Citizens for Change.