VIEWPOINT Money and Corporate America: How Much Is Enough? By Bryan Stockton

When it comes to money, there never seems to be enough to go around.

Or so I thought until I started looking for summer employment. “How much does it pay?” usually was the first question that came to my mind in the job search. As a student far away from home, I depend on my summer income to pay for entertainment and meals during the rest of the year. For the most part, the more money I make over the summer, the more fun I can afford to have during the year. Supporting myself through the year stems more from pride than anything else. Unfortunately, I was forced to eliminate many interesting internships from my search because these companies were not offering any compensation.

Caught in the midst of an economic downturn, some private corporations temporarily scaled back on their hiring. This seems rational: As income declines, expenses must as well.

Well, it’s not so simple. This is where the issue of corporate salaries comes in. Recent articles in The Economist and The New York Times examined executive compensation during a mild recession. The journalists wondered whether executives would trim their own salaries and benefits (often performance based) as revenues decreased. The results are mixed but nevertheless disappointing. Many companies, like Boeing or Eli Lilly, reduced the compensation packages of their executives. But at a few other companies, managers apparently can give their employees the pink slip and line their pockets at the same time.

At these companies, executives still received enormous bonuses even as their companies’ stocks fell. Kmart’s board voted to grant millions of dollars of last minute bonuses even as the company headed toward bankruptcy. One chief executive officer was able to pocket over $33 million, a 137 percent increase over the previous year, even as the company’s net income fell 86 percent and the stock price dropped about 30 percent. In another example, Cisco’s CEO received $154 million while company shareholders lost almost 60 percent. And yet, I’m told that there is not enough money for a paid internship program or enough to pay the lowest employees more than the minimum wage.

It seems that the American dream has been slowly distorted into a selfish, desperate grasp for more and more money. According to The New York Times, executives at Enron, Oracle, Sun and Xerox allegedly have all released misleading financial statements at one time or another, hoping to prop up their stock prices before selling at a profit. As seen in the Enron scandal, excessive corporate greed has consequences on the bottom line and ultimately harms both investors and employees. In a matter of days, as rumors turned into facts, one of the largest companies in the world simply disappeared.

The entrepreneurial drive for profits has allowed Americans to enjoy their high standard of living and fostered a vibrant democracy. Yet the willingness of so many people to seek more and more money at the cost of employees, shareholders and consumers threatens to undermine confidence in American capitalism.

I realize that this may be the current nature of the game, but I don’t like the rules. I understand that the real world is more cutthroat and less idealistic than a college campus. But maybe the real world needs a wake-up call. And only we can provide it. As many of us graduate from Georgetown and leave the Healy Gates for the glass towers of New York or Boston, how will we act? What values will guide our behavior? This is deeper than silly internship programs or executive compensation. Will we succumb to temptation and seek money at any cost, or will anything we learned at Georgetown – from a theology or philosophy class to extracurricular experiences – shape our actions? If it is the former, Georgetown has failed its purpose. Fortunately, though, I’m not willing to lose hope for the future.

But as for the present, I’m not so sure. I’ll hear back from companies next week. I know the money’s there; the right values are not.

Bryan Stockton is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service and a member of The Hoya editorial board.