The CEO Overclass

This week, we’ve looked at diversity in the C-Suite–or perhaps more accurately, the lack of diversity in the C-Suite.  Now, we turn to what some might call a darker side of the C-Suite.

In Slate Magazine, there is a fascinating article comparing the “culture of affluence” found in the the C-Suite with the “culture of poverty” found among, well, the poor.  What possible comparison is there, you may ask?  As it turns out, there are several comparisons.

Both are out of touch with American values.  Neither interacts with the middle class.  Both refuse to take responsibility for their actions–the underclass father who won’t support his children and the overclass scions of business who are incapable of seeing the problem of being paid a nine figure salary in a year when the company’s stock plummets.  Neither is a long-term thinker.  A member of the underclass lives in unending chaos, trying to stay alive from one day to the next.  A member of the overclass lives in a world that pays homage to nutty short-term risk-taking without concern for the long-term consequences of mass woundedness.  Both rely on federal relief.  The poor depend on Washington to bail them out when things get too bad.  As it turns out, the rich do, too.

My guess is that CEO’s will find this article obnoxious and that generational members of the underclass will see it as further evidence that their problem is being under the thumb of the Man.

You read it.  You think about it.  You decide.