For a long time now, we have been hearing that Obama is a European-style Socialist. For example: “There is a strong and legitimate interest in whether or not Obama is a Socialist,” says this one dummy from Forbes. “Obama takes his political inspirations from Europe,” says some loser. Etc., etc., etc. But he is not a Socialist, alas, or we would be talking about awesome laws like the one just passed in Commie-Socialist Pinko Switzerland:
Swiss voters have overwhelmingly backed proposals to impose some of the world’s strictest controls on executive pay, final referendum results show.
Nearly 68% of the voters supported plans to give shareholders a veto on compensation and ban big payouts for new and departing managers.
[…]
The vote came just days after the EU approved measures to cap bankers’ bonuses.
What a great idea, given that chief executives at 350 of America’s biggest companies are paid 231 times the amount of the average private sector worker, and only Chile, Mexico, and Turkey have higher levels of income inequality than the U.S. But this kind of thing will never happen here, because that would be Socialism, and we can’t have anything that is even kind of like Socialism, even if there will be some sort of tangible net benefit. The Swiss feel so strongly about this, by the way, that this new law is going into the Constitution.
Shareholders will have a veto over salaries, golden handshakes will be forbidden, and managers of companies who flout the rules could face prison.
The “fat cat initiative”, as it has been called, will be written into the Swiss constitution and apply to all Swiss companies listed on Switzerland’s stock exchange.
[…]
Meanwhile, under an EU deal agreed last week by the bloc’s 27 nations, bonuses will be capped at a year’s salary, but can rise to two year’s pay if there is explicit approval from shareholders.
The UK argued the EU bonus rules would drive away talent and restrict growth in the financial sector.
Ah yes. Talent. Mustn’t risk driving away talent! God knows, there isn’t an ocean of talent out there right now, U.K., that would probably be happy to work for less than oh, billions of dollars in stock options. Better offer it to them just in case.
[BBC]