Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

I did read what you wrote. And as a shareholder MY demands are different than yours. You would rather have compensation parity, I'd rather have profits. I want responsible profits on a regular basis, meaning a sustainable growth. I'm not interested in windfall profits because they are anomolies.

It already works that way. Many of the executives and executive commitees are tied to extensive bonus programs that are tied into bottom line figures. No increase in profits, no bonus. There are even programs for the lowest workers called profit sharing.

There are even employee share discount programs where employees can purchase stock at discounted prices. There are gifts of stock, performance options and other very real compensation programs at many companies. Not all participate in them, but that's no different than the old days of "full medical and full dental with optical."
-----Added 25/7/2008 at 02 : 30 : 49-----
I'd also like to point out that a board of directors is not one individual. They make decisions based on voting.

I'm on the Board of Directors for the company that owns the buildings we live in. We have a $2M deficit. We have to raise funds in order to meet that shortfall, but instead of passing an increase maintenance to the shareholders to meet that, we only passed an increase of 10% which is about $1M shy of what is required.

What does this have to do with anything?

Well it takes a majority of votes by the Board of Directors to pass any resolutions. So if they don't get the votes, it doesn't matter what the shareholders demand.